nuclear-news

The News That Matters about the Nuclear Industry Fukushima Chernobyl Mayak Three Mile Island Atomic Testing Radiation Isotope

Why We Must Oppose Israel’s Dangerous Gamble Before It’s Too Late

Failure to stop Israel’s genocide of Palestinians gambles with the fate of humanity as a whole.

Kathy Kelly, Aug 10, 2024,
https://www.laprogressive.com/foreign-policy/israels-dangerous-gamble

Following World War II, Albert Camus posed a “formidable gamble” to those who had survived a tragedy of immense proportions. “We’re in history up to our necks,” he observed, yet we must wager that “words are more powerful than munitions.”

“Leave or die” are the horrid words threatening largely unprotected Palestinian civilians in Gaza as dismayed populations around the world demand moral decency, or at least some indication of sanity, from their non-responsive governments.

The stakes couldn’t be higher. For decades, Israel has flouted international norms by refusing to acknowledge its nuclear weapons arsenal. Nor has it signed relevant treaties governing the biological weapons it possesses. For years, Israel has flagrantly violated the Geneva Conventions and basic principles of customary international law through its forcible acquisition of territories in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and through its transfer of Israeli settlers into the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Now, Israel’s genocidal attacks against Palestinians living in Gaza have cost the lives of at least 39,677 people. Tens of thousands more are believed to be buried beneath the rubble, with at least 90,000 wounded and the overwhelming majority of its displaced 1.9 million population facing starvation.

Israel’s failure to comply with international treaties and humanitarian law signal an acute need for other countries to organize weapons embargoes, cease trade deals, and provide support for civilian peacekeepers to bring about a permanent ceasefire.

Instead of unwavering adherence to international law, the United States continues to arm and protect Israel’s genocidal campaign against Palestinians, which now includes using starvation as a weapon of war.

We must try to absorb what it means to live as a refugee in an open-air concentration camp—already one of the most densely populated areas on Earth, even before 70 percent of its housing was destroyed. More than 341 mosques and three churches have been destroyed. 2,000-pound bombs have been dropped on tents in places deemed safe areas.

Innocent civilians are being killed by snipers. Thirty-one out of thirty-six hospitals have been damaged or destroyed. Escape routes are cut off. Persistent restrictions on the flow of humanitarian aid into and around Gaza are driving a desperate shortage of food, fuel, and medicine. As access to humanitarian relief is deliberately choked off, children are being collectively punished while Israeli leaders denounce them as animals. The world watches in horror as surgeons are forced to amputate the limbs of wounded children with no available anesthetics.

A new polio epidemic emerges while Israel vaccinates its soldiers but leaves the Palestinian civilian population vulnerable. Newly released prisoners have said they were subjected to torture, including being waterboarded and raped.

Rather than bring suspects before international courts, Israel has resorted to assassinations of the very negotiators with whom it purports to be seeking peace, and in a manner clearly intended to expand the conflict into a global war involving multiple nuclear-armed nations.

In its July 19, 2024, authoritative Advisory Opinion on Israel’s Settlement Policy and Practices, the World Court clearly declared the Israeli settlement project in the Occupied Territories to be illegal. The Court outlined the obligation of all parties to the Geneva Convention and the Genocide Convention to discontinue any economic or trade dealings with Israel which might help perpetuate Israel’s occupation and unlawful presence in the territory. Countries that signed or ratified these agreements are obligated to immediately stop arms exports to Israel and to use political, military, and economic influence to stop Israel’s flagrant, escalating violations of international humanitarian law.

The World Court has provided strong, clear words denouncing Israel’s genocide against Palestinians. As during the Vietnam War, ordinary citizens can no longer abide with the lawless barbarism of continuing assaults against Palestinians.

“Rolling the bones” is a slang expression for gambling. With a regional war perhaps now unavoidable in the Middle East, the genocidal derangement of the United States and Europe over Israel’s actions may well lead to a nuclear war that ends the human species. Failing to use our words at this most crucial juncture for humanity would be, as Camus said, a formidable gamble indeed.

August 14, 2024 Posted by | Atrocities, Gaza, Israel | Leave a comment

Map reveals nuclear fallout that would happen if Europe’s biggest plant explodes

Metro, Gergana Krasteva and Ben Ashton, 12 Aug 24

A fire at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is putting Europe’s future at stake.

Ukraine’s leading nuclear energy company, which operated the site until Russian forces seized control in the early days of the war, confirmed that flames broke out at the service water supply facility, later engulfing one of the cooling towers.

Both Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky have traded blame for the fire. The six nuclear reactors are in cold shutdown and no nuclear activity was recorded on Sunday, but the overall risk of nuclear meltdown remains elevated. 

The Ukrainian president said radiation levels are ‘within norm’, but since the start of the full-scale invasion, there has been widespread concerns about the safety of Zaporizhzhia………………………………..

A major nuclear incident at the plant could put several European nations at grave risk, not just Ukraine.

A model map shows how the continent could be affected by a nuclear explosion if it were to happen – and also illustrates how far and concentrated the release of cesium-137, which poses a major health hazard, would spread……………………………………………………

How would Europe be affected in case of a nuclear incident?

Dr Paul Dorfman, a nuclear safety expert who has advised the British and French governments, says Ukraine, parts of Russia, and central Europe are at risk of radioactive plume coming from the station.

‘So far, we have been lucky. There has been no significant radiological release from Zaporizhzhia. But luck is not a strategy,’ he told Metro.co.uk.

‘If something does go wrong, it will depend on where the plume goes and the nature of the incident.

‘But you can really begin to write off a lot of economies and lives.’

If the worst happens, the effects of a nuclear incident can have a long-term impact by causing illness, inducing cancer or even leading to death……………………………………………………………..

Dr Dorfman stressed the situation at Zaporizhzhia is not yet resolved, adding that ‘knowing sod’s law, if something can go wrong, it probably will’.

He said the much less defended Olympic-sized storage pools for spent fuel from the nuclear reactors, or otherwise known as ‘ponds’, still present a huge risk.

‘If the power supply to these ponds dries up then the water evaporates and there is a significant nuclear incident where the high-level radioactive waste rods blow,’ the expert added.

In terms of the latest modelling, most of the radioactive plume will fall on Ukraine and Russia’s bordering territory.

Central Europe and the northern tip of the Middle East, including Turkey, are also at risk of exposure.

‘It all depends on the wind and the dispersion. Winds can change as well,’ Dr Dorfman said.

‘So, it depends on the kind of radiation, accident and where the wind blows. There is no question about it, something significant can happen.’ 

Ahead of such a ‘potentially catastrophic’ event, he called for the ‘critical’ distribution of stable potassium iodide through Ukraine, Russia, central Europe and northern Middle East. https://metro.co.uk/2024/08/12/map-reveals-happen-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-plant-explodes-21404991/

August 14, 2024 Posted by | Ukraine | Leave a comment

Israel Suddenly Has A Problem With Attacks On Population Centers

Caitlin Johnstone, 13 Aug 24,  https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-suddenly-has-a-problem-with?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=147648103&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

Israel has been loudly and melodramatically fretting about an impending retaliatory attack from Iran and Hezbollah which it claims will likely include strikes in the vicinity of civilian population centers. This is of course rich coming from the regime that has spent ten months turning Gaza into a flattened wasteland of rubble and civilian corpses.

A Washington Post article titled “Israel anticipates direct attack from Iran; U.S. deploys more vessels to region” contains the following interesting paragraph:

“Israel has communicated to Iran and Hezbollah that targeting civilian population centers would be considered a red line for Israel, which is preparing for a spectrum of scenarios, including one in which Hezbollah attacks first and is joined by Iran afterward, said Yoel Guzansky, a former official on Israel’s National Security Council who is now a senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.”

Israel’s fretting about attacks on its population centers is echoed in a recent Axios post titled “New Israeli intelligence suggests Iran prepares to attack Israel within days,” whose Israeli intel sources “said the attacks by Hezbollah and Iran are likely to be bigger than the one conducted by Iran last April and include the launching of missiles and drones at military targets in central Israel, including in the vicinity of civilian population centers.”

This claim that Iran may launch attacks “in the vicinity of civilian population centers” is funny in a couple of different ways. Firstly, the IDF headquarters is located smack dab in the heart of Tel Aviv, so any attack on the hub of the Israeli war machine would necessarily occur in the vicinity of civilian population centers. Secondly, it’s funny because Israel has spent years justifying its attacks on Palestinian population centers by claiming Hamas is using “human shields” by surrounding themselves with civilians to deter attacks.

Placing a legitimate military target in the heart of a civilian population center and then declaring a “red line” against attacking civilian population centers where legitimate military targets are located—after launching an insanely escalatory assassination in Tehran — is obviously using civilians as human shields. And what’s wild is that Israel’s own claims about Hamas using human shields in the same way have been conclusively debunked, firstly by the self-evident fact that the presence of civilians obviously doesn’t deter Israeli attacks at all, and secondly by revelations that the IDF deliberately waits to launch airstrikes on suspected Hamas members until they are at home with their families, thereby ensuring the maximum number of civilian deaths possible.

It goes without saying that Israel does not have any sincere concern for civilian lives, at least for anyone who’s paid attention to its actions at any time between the state’s inception and today. But it is worth highlighting these contradictions anyway, to contextualize all the histrionic garment-rending we’re going to witness should an attack on or near civilian population centers occur in the coming days.

August 14, 2024 Posted by | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Mature trees offer hope in world of rising emissions

Older trees are able to accelerate their rates of absorbing planet-warming
emissions, scientists at the University of Birmingham have found. A forest
of mature oak trees was exposed to elevated levels of carbon dioxide for
seven years and in response, the trees increased their production of wood –
locking in the greenhouse gas and preventing it from warming the planet.

The researchers hope the study, published in Nature Climate Change, will
demonstrate the importance of protecting and maintaining mature forests for
tackling climate change.

 BBC 12th Aug 2024

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1d7p0n1e3ro

August 14, 2024 Posted by | climate change | Leave a comment

AUKUS revamped: Australia to indemnify US and UK against ‘any liability’ from nuclear risks

Documents tabled in parliament on Monday have also revealed the United States or United Kingdom could walk away from the AUKUS deal with Australia with a year’s notice.

SBS News, 12 August 2024

Key Points
  • The US, UK and Australia signed a new AUKUS agreement in Washington last week.
  • Documents tabled in parliament on Monday revealed several key elements of the revamped agreement.
  • Australia will indemnify the US and UK from any ‘liability’ arising from nuclear risks related to the program.

The United States or the United Kingdom could exit the AUKUS agreement to provide nuclear-powered submarines with Australia with a year’s notice under a new arrangement.

The revamped agreement also requires Australia to legally protect both allies against costs or injuries arising from nuclear risks.

The arrangement was signed by all three partner countries in Washington in the US last week.

Advertisement

Documents tabled in parliament on Monday set out the agreed legal framework for transferring nuclear materials and equipment to Australia for the $368 billion acquisition of atomic-powered submarines announced in 2021.

The plan will bring eight nuclear-powered subs into service by the 2050s.

US and UK could walk away with a year’s notice

The agreement, which “shall remain in force until 31 December 2075”, says the AUKUS deal shouldn’t adversely affect the ability of the US and UK to “meet their respective military requirements and to not degrade their respective naval nuclear propulsion programs”.

“Any party may terminate the agreement … by giving at least one year’s written notice to the other parties,” it reads.

Australia responsible for storage and disposal of waste

Nuclear material for the future submarines’ propulsion would be transferred from the US or UK in “complete, welded power units”, the agreement says.

But Australia would be responsible for the storage and disposal of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste from the nuclear power units that are transferred under the deal.

Australia to cover other members for nuclear risks

The updated agreement also means Australia will indemnify the US and UK from any “liability, loss, costs, damage, or injury (including third party claims)” arising from nuclear risks related to the program.

But the legal protection won’t apply in relation to a conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarine that has been in service with the US Navy “until such time as it is transferred to Australia”…………………..

Greens attack revamped agreement

Greens defence spokesman David Shoebridge criticised the new agreement for its “multiple escape hatches” which risked Australia being left high and dry.

“This is a $368 billion gamble with taxpayers’ money from the Albanese government,” he said…………………..more https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/aukus-revamped-australia-to-indemnify-us-and-uk-against-any-liability-from-nuclear-risks/rudp9zf10

August 14, 2024 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, politics international | Leave a comment

How Close Are the Planet’s Climate Tipping Points?

Earth’s warming could trigger sweeping changes in the natural world that would be hard, if not impossible, to reverse.

 Right now, every moment of every day, we humans are reconfiguring
Earth’s climate bit by bit. Hotter summers and wetter storms. Higher seas
and fiercer wildfires. The steady, upward turn of the dial on a host of
threats to our homes, our societies and the environment around us.

We might also be changing the climate in an even bigger way. For the past two
decades, scientists have been raising alarms about great systems in the
natural world that warming, caused by carbon emissions, might be pushing
toward collapse.

These systems are so vast that they can stay somewhat in
balance even as temperatures rise. But only to a point. Once we warm the
planet beyond certain levels, this balance might be lost, scientists say.
The effects would be sweeping and hard to reverse. Not like the turning of
a dial, but the flipping of a switch. One that wouldn’t be easily flipped
back.

 New York Times 11th Aug 2024

August 14, 2024 Posted by | climate change | Leave a comment

America prepares for a new nuclear-arms race

Its build-up could start as early as 2026

The Economist. 13 Aug 24

IN THE PENTAGON these days, those who plan for Doomsday have a new nightmare: no longer yesteryear’s dread of one big nuclear foe, but of several at the same time. What if, asks one official, Russia attacked a NATO country, drawing America in to defend Europe; then China seized on America’s distraction to invade Taiwan; and then North Korea decided to attack the south? Three wars; three sets of friends and allies; three unpredictable nuclear crises. Could America handle them all?………… (Subscribers only) ………… more https://www.economist.com/united-states/2024/08/12/america-prepares-for-a-new-nuclear-arms-race

August 14, 2024 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Gantz warns of a civil war in “Israel”

By Al Mayadeen English, Source: Agencies, 12 Aug 2024

Israeli Channel 14 reported on his statements, indicating that he expressed his thoughts during a public ceremony held Monday commemorating the so-called “destruction of the Temple.”

Israeli Knesset member and opposition leader Benny Gantz has warned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not “sacrifice his government to protect Israelis,” or do what is necessary to prevent civil war.

The former member of the Israeli war cabinet stressed that if Israelis “do not come to our senses, there will be a civil war here… It is forbidden to hide the truth.”

According to him, there is a “leadership that divides the people and poisons the well from which everyone drinks.”

Israeli Channel 14 reported on his statements, indicating that he expressed his thoughts during a public ceremony held Monday commemorating the so-called “destruction of the Temple.”

Gantz criticized the raids on military bases and the “trampling on the dignity of captives’ families.”…………………………………

According to Israeli Channel 12 last month, high-ranking security officials have warned that the personal and political conflict between Netanyahu and Gallant is “damaging” the management of ongoing military operations. It was noted that the two do not communicate outside of official discussions…………………………….. https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/gantz-warns-of-a-civil-war-in–israel

August 14, 2024 Posted by | Israel, politics | Leave a comment