2024 August « nuclear-news

Nuclear power risks rising in Russia-Ukraine war

Dr Philip Webber, SGR, warns that another nuclear power plant is at major risk as the war enters new territory.

Responsible Science blog, 22 August 2024 more https://www.sgr.org.uk/resources/nuclear-power-risks-rising-russia-ukraine-war—

The Russia-Ukraine war has already led to extremely serious risks to nuclear power plants. In a previous article, [1] I described in some detail those related to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) in Ukraine. The situation there has once again deteriorated – as I discuss below – but I want to focus first on the threat to another power station.

Kursk

Due to the Ukraine military incursion into the Kursk region of the Russian Federation, which began on 15 August, [2] there is now a severe risk to the huge Kursk nuclear power plant (KNPP) – which has elements in common with the Chernobyl plant. The KNPP is located some 60 kilometres from the border with Ukraine and is, at the time of writing, close to an area of fierce fighting. As a result, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has issued further warnings to remind the warring parties to not risk a nuclear disaster in Europe. [3][4]

The KNPP – like the ZNPP – includes six nuclear reactors, and is also one of the three biggest nuclear power stations in Russia. But there are two critical differences. First, two of the KNPP reactors are operating at full power. Second, these two reactors are of the same design – the RBMK – as the Chernobyl nuclear plant, which suffered the world’s worst nuclear accident in 1986. Crucially, these reactors have no protective dome structure [5] making them very vulnerable to a military strike or aircraft impact. With intense fighting only a few tens of kilometres away, both reactors are well within the range of artillery or rocket fire. A military strike on either reactor could initiate a very serious release of radioactive material creating a Europe-wide nuclear disaster.

It is anticipated that the IAEA will soon visit the Kursk NPP to assess the situation on the ground.

Zaporizhzhia

Returning to the situation at the Zaporizhzhia NPP, IAEA inspectors stationed there have again reported intense military activity – artillery, rocket and heavy machine-gun fire – very close to the plant, and several instances of explosive drone strikes on the plant itself, as well as on vital electrical substations and surrounding woodland. [6] One of the two ZNPP cooling towers was hit, fires were started beside an electrical sub-station resulting in a loss of power, and the perimeter road was cratered.

The six ZNPP reactors are all in ‘cold shutdown’ but rely on a supply of electricity to power pumps for water cooling of the reactor cores – and a large number of spent fuel storage tanks – to prevent overheating to dangerous levels and a resultant release of radioactive material. The reliable supply of water remains a serious problem and emergency supplies of fuel for emergency diesel generators are also dangerously low.

Drone attacks also continue to be reported near Ukraine’s other nuclear power sites. [7]

The IAEA Director General, Rafael Grossi, has issued a series of warnings reminding both Russia and Ukraine of UN agreements to avoid military activity at or near nuclear plants. [8] However, the only way to remove these risks completely is for a rapid, negotiated end to the war.

Dr Philip Webber is Co-chair of Scientists for Global Responsibility. He has written widely on the risks of nuclear weapons and nuclear power – including co-authoring the book, London After the Bomb. He spent part of his career working as an emergency planner in local government.

References………………………………………………..

August 27, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Russia, safety, Ukraine | Leave a comment

America’s Nuclear ‘Downwinders’ Deserve Justice

Countless Americans were poisoned by the nuclear arms race — and their federal compensation just expired. That’s an outrage.

By Aspen Coriz-Romero, Anila Lopez Marks | August 21, 2024 https://otherwords.org/americas-nuclear-downwinders-deserve-justice/

It’s been nearly 80 years since the first atomic bomb was tested in New Mexico. Communities have been reeling ever since.

For generations, Americans who live “downwind” of nuclear testing and development sites have suffered deadly health complications. And this summer, funding for the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) expired, putting their hard-earned compensation at risk.

Coming alongside sky-high spending on nuclear weapons development, this lapse is an outrage. Funding for these communities, which span much of the country, should be not only restored but expanded.

Alongside New Mexicans, people in Nevada, Idaho, Arizona, Utah, and beyond have suffered health complications from nuclear testing in Nevada. And fallout from decades of tests ravaged the Marshall Islands, which were occupied by the U.S. after World War II.

Communities in Colorado were exposed to radiation from the Rocky Flats weapons plant. And people living near Missouri’s Coldwater Creek were exposed when World War II-era nuclear waste was buried there.

Over the generations since, tens of thousands of people have been affected. Health impacts include respiratory illnesses, cardiovascular diseases, birth defects, and elevated rates of cancer.

We’re from New Mexico, the only “cradle-to-grave” state in which all steps of the nuclear production process — mining, testing, and disposal — occur together. We’ve lived near impacted communities our entire lives.

Tina Cordova, co-founder of New Mexico’s Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, says five generations of her family have suffered health and economic impacts from nuclear testing. “We are forced to bury our loved ones on a regular basis,” she said.

Uranium mining in the Navajo Nation has also taken a terrible toll. Between 1944 and 1986, 30 million tons of uranium ore were extracted from Navajo land. Indigenous miners were exposed to radiation without proper safety protocols, resulting in aggressive cancers, miscarriages, lung diseases, and other illnesses.

After decades of struggle to get compensation, communities impacted by nuclear weapons development finally won passage of RECA in 1990 — 45 years after the first atomic bomb was dropped.

The initial law provided $2.6 billion to around 41,000 individuals, limiting coverage to onsite participants and downwinders within designated areas of the Nevada Test Site. The bill was amended in 2000 to include those who contracted cancer or other specific diseases from working as uranium miners between 1942 and 1971.

Since then, there have been bipartisan efforts to expand the bill’s narrow scope to other impacted communities. In response to years of advocacy, an extended and expanded version of RECA successfully passed the Senate this spring with 69-30 in favor — and President Biden’s backing.

The bill would have expanded RECA eligibility to all downwinders in Idaho, Montana, Colorado, New Mexico, and Guam, along with previously excluded areas of Nevada, Arizona, and Utah. And it would have included miners exposed to radiation until 1990.

But Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson blocked a vote in the House, abandoning the unseen victims of the U.S. nuclear arms race. Now RECA has expired altogether.

It’s not for lack of money. The U.S. is projected to spend over $750 billion on nuclear weapons over the next decade — a fact it feels impossible to reconcile with the abandonment of the people affected by that spending.

Meanwhile, people are still being exposed to radiation.

Even now, 523 abandoned uranium mines containing waste piles remain on Navajo territory — and companies continue to haul uranium through Navajo land, despite a nearly two-decade old ban on uranium mining there.

Mismanagement of nuclear waste is another ongoing concern. In 2019, 250 barrels of waste were lost en route to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.

To protect future generations — and our own — the ultimate goal should be an end to all nuclear weapons development. But as we work toward that goal, repairing the harm to impacted communities — by renewing and expanding RECA — is a necessary next step.

August 27, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Farewell, the American Century

What flag-wavers tend to leave out of their account of the American Century is not only the contributions of others, but the various missteps perpetrated by the United States — missteps, it should be noted, that spawned many of the problems bedeviling us today.

Rewriting the Past by Adding In What’s Been Left Out

By Andrew Bacevich TomDispatch, 25 Aug 24

In a recent column, the Washington Post’s Richard Cohen wrote, “What Henry Luce called ‘the American Century’ is over.” Cohen is right. All that remains is to drive a stake through the heart of Luce’s pernicious creation, lest it come back to life. This promises to take some doing.

To solve our problems requires that we see ourselves as we really are. And that requires shedding, once and for all, the illusions embodied in the American Century.

When the Time-Life publisher coined his famous phrase, his intent was to prod his fellow citizens into action. Appearing in the February 7, 1941 issue of Life, his essay, “The American Century,” hit the newsstands at a moment when the world was in the throes of a vast crisis. A war in Europe had gone disastrously awry. A second almost equally dangerous conflict was unfolding in the Far East. Aggressors were on the march.

With the fate of democracy hanging in the balance, Americans diddled. Luce urged them to get off the dime. More than that, he summoned them to “accept wholeheartedly our duty and our opportunity as the most powerful and vital nation in the world… to exert upon the world the full impact of our influence, for such purposes as we see fit and by such means as we see fit.”

Read today, Luce’s essay, with its strange mix of chauvinism, religiosity, and bombast (“We must now undertake to be the Good Samaritan to the entire world…”), does not stand up well. Yet the phrase “American Century” stuck and has enjoyed a remarkable run. It stands in relation to the contemporary era much as “Victorian Age” does to the nineteenth century. In one pithy phrase, it captures (or at least seems to capture) the essence of some defining truth: America as alpha and omega, source of salvation and sustenance, vanguard of history, guiding spirit and inspiration for all humankind.

In its classic formulation, the central theme of the American Century has been one of righteousness overcoming evil. The United States (above all the U.S. military) made that triumph possible. When, having been given a final nudge on December 7, 1941, Americans finally accepted their duty to lead, they saved the world from successive diabolical totalitarianisms. In doing so, the U.S. not only preserved the possibility of human freedom but modeled what freedom ought to look like.

Thank You, Comrades

So goes the preferred narrative of the American Century, as recounted by its celebrants.

The problems with this account are two-fold. First, it claims for the United States excessive credit. Second, it excludes, ignores, or trivializes matters at odds with the triumphal story-line.

The net effect is to perpetuate an array of illusions that, whatever their value in prior decades, have long since outlived their usefulness. In short, the persistence of this self-congratulatory account deprives Americans of self-awareness, hindering our efforts to navigate the treacherous waters in which the country finds itself at present. Bluntly, we are perpetuating a mythic version of the past that never even approximated reality and today has become downright malignant. Although Richard Cohen may be right in declaring the American Century over, the American people — and especially the American political class — still remain in its thrall.

Constructing a past usable to the present requires a willingness to include much that the American Century leaves out.

For example, to the extent that the demolition of totalitarianism deserves to be seen as a prominent theme of contemporary history (and it does), the primary credit for that achievement surely belongs to the Soviet Union. When it came to defeating the Third Reich, the Soviets bore by far the preponderant burden, sustaining 65% of all Allied deaths in World War II.

By comparison, the United States suffered 2% of those losses, for which any American whose father or grandfather served in and survived that war should be saying: Thank you, Comrade Stalin.

For the United States to claim credit for destroying the Wehrmacht is the equivalent of Toyota claiming credit for inventing the automobile. We entered the game late and then shrewdly scooped up more than our fair share of the winnings. The true “Greatest Generation” is the one that willingly expended millions of their fellow Russians while killing millions of German soldiers.

Hard on the heels of World War II came the Cold War, during which erstwhile allies became rivals. Once again, after a decades-long struggle, the United States came out on top…………………………………………….

The instances of folly and criminality bearing the label “made-in-Washington” may not rank up there with the Armenian genocide, the Bolshevik Revolution, the appeasement of Adolf Hitler, or the Holocaust, but they sure don’t qualify as small change. To give them their due is necessarily to render the standard account of the American Century untenable.

Here are several examples, each one familiar, even if its implications for the problems we face today are studiously ignored:

Cuba. In 1898, the United States went to war with Spain for the proclaimed purpose of liberating the so-called Pearl of the Antilles. When that brief war ended, Washington reneged on its promise. If there actually has been an American Century, it begins here, with the U.S. government breaking a solemn commitment, while baldly insisting otherwise. By converting Cuba into a protectorate, the United States set in motion a long train of events leading eventually to the rise of Fidel Castro, the Bay of Pigs, Operation Mongoose, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and even today’s Guantanamo Bay prison camp. The line connecting these various developments may not be a straight one, given the many twists and turns along the way, but the dots do connect.

The Bomb.…………………..the role the United States played in afflicting humankind with this scourge.

The United States invented the bomb. The United States — alone among members of the nuclear club — actually employed it as a weapon of war. The U.S. led the way in defining nuclear-strike capacity as the benchmark of power in the postwar world, leaving other powers like the Soviet Union, Great Britain, France, and China scrambling to catch up. Today, the U.S. still maintains an enormous nuclear arsenal at the ready and adamantly refuses to commit itself to a no-first-use policy, even as it professes its horror at the prospect of some other nation doing as the United States itself has done.

Iran. Extending his hand to Tehran, President Obama has invited those who govern the Islamic republic to “unclench their fists.” Yet to a considerable degree, those clenched fists are of our own making………………….

Afghanistan.………………………………………………………………..

……………………………………..All we know for sure is that policies concocted in Washington by reputedly savvy statesmen now look exceedingly ill-advised.

What are we to make of these blunders? The temptation may be to avert our gaze, thereby preserving the reassuring tale of the American Century. We should avoid that temptation and take the opposite course, acknowledging openly, freely, and unabashedly where we have gone wrong. We should carve such acknowledgments into the face of a new monument smack in the middle of the Mall in Washington: We blew it. We screwed the pooch. We caught a case of the stupids. We got it ass-backwards.

Only through the exercise of candor might we avoid replicating such mistakes.

……………………………………………………….. apologize to them, but for our own good — to free ourselves from the accumulated conceits of the American Century and to acknowledge that the United States participated fully in the barbarism, folly, and tragedy that defines our time. For those sins, we must hold ourselves accountable. https://tomdispatch.com/farewell-the-american-century-2/

August 27, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | culture and arts, history, USA | Leave a comment

Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt says the Ukraine War turned him into an arms dealer

Microsoft Start, Story by kniemeyer@insider.com (Kenneth Niemeyer), 25 Aug 24,

Eric Schmidt, the ex-Google CEO, said his new drone company intends to help Ukraine.
Schmidt’s startup, White Stork, aims to create AI-driven attack drones.
He made the comments in April during a lecture at Standford University that was first posted last week.

Google’s former chief executive, Eric Schmidt, said he is now a ‘licensed arms dealer’ because he wants to help Ukraine access AI that could help it fight against Russia’s ongoing invasion.

At a lecture at Stanford University in April, Schmidt said he is working on a company with Udacity CEO Sebastian Thrun that will “use AI in complicated, powerful ways for these essentially robotic wars.” The lecture, which Stanford posted to its YouTube channel last week, quickly went viral. It has since been taken down……………..

The startup, called White Stork, is working to mass-produce drones that could use AI to identify targets. Schmidt previously chaired the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence for several years. He was Google’s CEO from 2001 to 2011.

Schmidt said White Stork has two goals: building complicated AI robots and lowering costs. By lowering the cost of the robots, Schmidt says the need for ground battles with tanks and other artillery could be “eliminated.”

He said that with “the support of the governments,” the drones would go “straight into Ukraine” and “fight the war.”

“Because of the way the system works, I am now a licensed arms dealer,” Schmidt said. “A computer scientist, businessman, arms dealer.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/ex-google-ceo-eric-schmidt-says-the-ukraine-war-turned-him-into-an-arms-dealer/ar-AA1oYiqR
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August 27, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war | Leave a comment

China keeps door firmly closed to Japanese seafood imports

Japan Times, Zhoushan, China – 24 Aug 24

China is keeping its door tightly shut to Japanese fishery products after imposing an import ban a year ago in protest against the discharge of treated water into the sea from a crippled nuclear power plant in Japan.

Despite Tokyo’s repeated assurances that the procedure is safe, Chinese officials still refer to the treated water, which contains small amounts of radioactive tritium, as “nuclear-contaminated water.”

Tokyo and Beijing are in talks over the issue but there are no clues yet as to how the situation could be resolved.

In a meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa late last month, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi reiterated Beijing’s demand that an international system to monitor the water release be established.

China imposed the blanket ban on fishery products from Japan on Aug. 24 last year immediately after the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant started releasing treated water.

Chinese trade statistics show that no fishery products, except aquarium fish, have been imported from Japan since September last year…………………………………………..

The Japanese food company’s sales in China have yet to return to normal levels. “The situation remains tough,” the food company official said.

The impact of the import ban has spread further than Beijing had anticipated.

A woman in her 40s in Beijing said she has not eaten marine products for a long while.

……………………………………………Beijing has said seafood sold in China is safe because strict radiation inspections are conducted in China.

But a dealer in fishery products in Zhoushan said that the ocean is connected. It is illogical that Japanese products are dangerous and Chinese products are safe, the dealer said.

In China, experts’ views that the treated water would reach the Chinese coast as early as this spring spread in state media and on social media. ……………………………………………… https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2024/08/24/china-ban-japan-seafood/—

August 27, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, China | Leave a comment

Countering the nuclear lobby spin this week

Some bits of good news. How Copenhagen cleaned up its harbour. Renewable energy consumption hit a record high. The US finally supported a global plastics treaty

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The heroes who saved the world from Chernobyl Two.

‘Very serious’ nuclear situation could happen ‘at any moment’ in Ukraine, says IAEA chief.

Donald Trump and Nuclear Weapons.

Molten salt reactors were trouble in the 1960s—and they remain trouble today.

From the archives. A new French fairy tale: “Cheap” nuclear electricity in France is not what it appears.

Biodiversity. Capitalism is killing the planet – but curtailing it is the discussion nobody wants to have. ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2024/08/20/2-b1-capitalism-is-killing-the-planet-but-curtailing-it-is-the-discussion-nobody-wants-to-have/

Climate. Climate scientist says 2/3rds of the world is under an effective ‘death sentence’ because of global warming. Think we don’t have a choice when it comes to saving the planet? Think again– ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2024/08/20/2-b1-think-we-dont-have-a-choice-when-it-comes-to-saving-the-planet-think-again/ Project 2025: The right-wing conspiracy to torpedo global climate action. Meeting 1.5C warming limit hinges on governments more than technology, study says.

Plastic pollution. Human brain tissue made up of 0.5 per cent microplastics, study reveals.

Noel’s notes. A whole new way of thinking about nuclear weapons – THEY’RE SILLY! “Churnalism” – that is a timely word that we all need to consider.

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AUSTRALIA. Is the USA now considering withdrawal from AUKUS? Australia offers U.S. a vast new military launchpad in China conflict. AUKUS 2.0: Albanese Drives It Like He Stole It, and Then Gives It Away to the US. Civil Society faces imposition of an AUKUS military High Level nuclear waste dump. The anti-renewables groups pushing the nuclear option to rural Australia – ALSO AT https://antinuclear.net/2024/08/26/the-anti-renewables-groups-pushing-the-nuclear-option-to-rural-australia/ Too big to fail? Who cares if there’s no accountability – the Nuclear Lie.

NUCLEAR ITEMS.

ARTS and CULTURE. The lost world of Chornobyl: inside a nuclear disaster zone – in pictures. The UK nuclear lobby’s festival of joyous propaganda.

CLIMATE. Why Nuclear Energy Is Not the Solution to the Climate Crisis. Why the big push for nuclear power as “green”?

ECONOMICS. Atlantic Canada’s only nuclear power station is offline, again.

Final investment decision on new nuclear plant Sizewell C is delayed. “Final Investment Decision (FID) ” in Sizewell C nuclear station might never happen. Nuclear unicorn Newcleo to move holding company from UK to France to tap EU funds.

China keeps door firmly closed to Japanese seafood imports.

SMRs and nuclear renaissance: Learning from past to avoid over promising on low costs.

ENERGY. AI’s insatiable energy demand is going nuclear.

Global disappointment with the most promising energy: ‘The dream is dead’, and we are in ‘big trouble’

ENVIRONMENT. Sizewell C seeks permit for ‘water vole displacement activities’ ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2024/08/24/1-b1-sizewell-c-seeks-permit-for-water-vole-displacement-activities/

EVENTS. 1 September, Ontario WALK AGAINST NUCLEAR WASTE https://www.facebook.com/nonukesontreatylands

MEDIA. Defence Correspondents: The Journalistic Wing of the Military?

POLITICS. Harris’s concluding speech at DNC embraces agenda of global war. Democrats Release Insanely Hawkish Middle East Policy Platform. ‘Strong record of supporting the U.S.-Israel relationship’: a look at Tim Walz’s votes on Palestine as a member of Congress.Biden’s Convention Speech Made Absurd Claims About His Gaza Policy.

POLITICS INTERNATIONAL and DIPLOMACY. Blinken ‘Sentenced Ceasefire Talks to Death’ With Comments on Netanyahu.Hungary again breaks with West: Ukrainian attack on Kursk is ‘wrong‘ .The U.S. and China Can Lead the Way on Nuclear Threat Reduction. White House downplays Chinese concerns over possible US nuclear strategy change,

SAFETY. Rafael Grossi to visit Kursk nuclear power plant in Russia , following reports that remains of a drone were found there Nuclear power risks rising in Russia-Ukraine war. Fire at Zaporizhzhia elevates meltdown risk. IAEA chief to visit Kursk nuclear plant due to Ukraine incursion.
UK’s nuclear facilities ‘at high risk of atomic blackmail’ from Putin. Flight attendant turned author reveals terrible security vulnerability she fears could trigger nuclear apocalypse.
How EDF almost plunged France into darkness .Incident: Fluid leak forces rail shipment to return to the San Onofre nuclear power plant

SECRETS and LIES. Report on nuclear power in Wales is so secret the UK Government won’t even disclose its name
.Labour MP under fire for accepting £2,000 donation from Sizewell C developer. ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2024/08/22/1-b1-labour-mp-under-fire-for-accepting-2000-donation-from-sizewell-c-developer/

Inside the ‘suitably opaque’ response to a toxic sewage spill at Chalk River nuclear lab.

SPACE. EXPLORATION, WEAPONS. Rocket Test on Remote Scottish Island Ends in Flames.

SPINBUSTER. Nuclear power on the prairies is a green smokescreen. ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2024/08/21/2-b1-nuclear-power-on-the-prairies-is-a-green-smokescreen/ Why fans of nuclear are a problem today.

TECHNOLOGY. Small modular reactors: Not all that glows is gold.

The Risk of Bringing AI Discussions Into High-Level Nuclear Dialogues.

A robot’s attempt to get a sample of the melted nuclear fuel at Japan’s damaged reactor is suspended

WASTES. Britain’s Dirtiest Beaches – Don’t Mention the Pu! Japan: Removal of nuclear fuel remains in Fukushima will begin on August 22.The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA)NDA’s £30 million investment into nuclear research & innovation.We don’t want your garbage‘: Northern township in shock after hearing Ontario is sending it radioactive waste.

WAR and CONFLICT. Blinken Heads to Israel for Gaza Cease-Fire Push as IDF Slaughter Continues.

Moscow Says Ukraine Destroyed Russian Bridge With Western-Provided Missiles. Ukraine could trigger ‘another Chernobyl’ – ex-US Army officer. Zelensky’s Misadventures in Kursk.

Kazakhstan Takes Lead in Global Push for Nuclear Disarmament Amid Heightened Tensions.

WEAPONS and WEAPONS SALES. From the NPT to the UN Summit of the Future: Cut nuclear weapons budgets and investments.

‘US the primary source of nuclear threat in world’. Biden approved nuclear strategy focusing on China: Report. US crying wolf over China’s ‘nuclear threat’ while expanding nuclear arsenal.

Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt says the Ukraine War turned him into an arms dealer.

August 27, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | 1 Comment

AI’s insatiable energy demand is going nuclear

Yahoo.com, Rachelle Akuffo, Host, Mon, Aug 26, 2024

On the surface, the deal indicates Amazon’s ambitious expansion plans. But dig deeper, and the company’s purchase of a nuclear power facility speaks to a broader issue that Amazon and other tech giants are grappling with: the insatiable demand for energy from artificial intelligence.

In Amazon’s case, AWS purchased Talen Energy’s Pennsylvania nuclear-powered data center to co-locate its rapidly expanding AI data center next to a power source, keeping up with the energy demands that artificial intelligence has created.

The strategy is a symptom of an energy reckoning that has been building as AI has been creeping into consumers’ daily lives — powering everything from internet searches to smart devices and cars

Companies like Google (GOOG, GOOGL), Apple (AAPL), and Tesla (TSLA) continue to enhance AI capabilities with new products and services. Each AI task requires vast computational power, which translates into substantial electricity consumption through energy-hungry data centers.

Estimates suggest that by 2027, global AI-related electricity consumption could rise by 64%, reaching up to 134 terawatt hours annually — or the equivalent of the electricity usage of countries like the Netherlands or Sweden.

This raises a critical question: How are Big Tech companies addressing the energy demands that their future AI innovations will require?

The rising energy consumption of AI

According to Pew Research, more than half of Americans interact with AI at least once a day.

Prominent researcher and data scientist Sasha Luccioni, who serves as the AI and climate lead at Hugging Face, a company that builds tools for AI applications, often discusses AI’s energy consumption.

Luccioni explained that while training AI models is energy-intensive — training the GPT-3 model, for example, used about 1,300 megawatt-hours of electricity — it typically only happens once. However, the inference phase, where models generate responses, can require even more energy due to the sheer volume of queries.

For example, when a user asks AI models like ChatGPT a question, it involves sending a request to a data center, where powerful processors generate a response. This process, though quick, uses approximately 10 times more energy than a typical Google search.

“The models get used so many times, and it really adds up quickly,” Luccioni said. She noted that depending on the size of the model, 50 million to 200 million queries can consume as much energy as training the model itself.

“ChatGPT gets 10 million users a day,” Luccioni said. “So within 20 days, you have reached that ‘ginormous’ … amount of energy used for training via deploying the model.”

The largest consumers of this energy are Big Tech companies, known as hyperscalers, that have the capacity to scale AI efforts rapidly with their cloud services. Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet, Meta (META), and Amazon alone are projected to spend $189 billion on AI in 2024.

As AI-driven energy consumption grows, it puts additional strain on the already overburdened energy grids……………………………………………
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ais-insatiable-energy-demand-is-going-nuclear-143234914.html

August 26, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | ENERGY | Leave a comment

Why fans of nuclear are a problem today

… not because they will succeed, but because they will fail

Jérôme à Paris, Aug 25, 2024,
https://jeromeaparis.substack.com/p/why-fans-of-nuclear-are-a-problem

Nuclear energy has been great. In many places, it has produced relatively cheap electricity and (although we did not care about that when it was built) it is largely carbon-free. It still works, but it is simply no longer competitive against available alternatives, and it is going to be increasingly difficult to integrate in a system that is inexorably dominated by solar energy during the day and other renewables. (see for instance this recent academic study). In any case, it is not financeable, and given the large amounts required for each plant, they will struggle to get built, even with large-scale state support.

If a few nuclear plants could easily be built on budget and on time in a given system, it would not be an issue, but the problem is that (i) a lot of the energy of its proponents is directed at maligning renewable energy, presenting it as unserious and insufficient (arguments of the “you can’t do vital surgery if there’s no wind” type which ignore how grids work), and (ii) more importantly, nuclear swallows an incredible volume of political capital that could better be used for other purposes, like energy efficiency, upgrading the grid or reducing fossil fuel use outside the electricity sector.

Politicians like these very large, multi-billion-euro projects that seem to solve an issue in one go, and can be forcefully and visibly decided by a handful of large-ego persons like themselves. They don’t understand (or hate) the very decentralized and uncontrollable nature of renewable energy systems, that require complex rules and don’t give them the same publicisable impact on things. Nuclear provides a concentrated nexus of jobs, TV opportunities, and VIP meetings with big stakes. So they are easily convinced by proponents that this is what is needed.

And thus we get endlessly repeating “decisions” to build new nuclear plants, to be executed over the next 20 or 40 years, and which increasingly resemble fusion energy – always 20 years away. This is because the underlying arithmetic unfortunately no longer works, and nobody is actually willing to sink the billions, or pay the inflated tariffs, that are required to get the plants of the ground – and that’s before delays and cost overruns hit (and obviously nobody sane will agree to be responsible for these in advance).

If nuclear made sense, Microsoft or Amazon or Rio Tinto would finance the construction of a few plants to feed their ever growing appetite for reliable carbon-free energy… In reality, despite all the high-powered attention, ridiculously few new nuclear plants are being built compared to new renewables, even in China. Nuclear is at best irrelevant and at worst a distraction…

This would be harmless if it did not occupy the limited time that senior politicians have to spend on the topic of energy, and get them to spend their political capital on these projects that end up going nowhere. It also means that they don’t understand what is actually happening in the energy sector in the meantime, and don’t work on the new policies that are needed to make sure that ongoing (unstoppable) transition to renewables is done more smartly and efficiently.

Nuclear proponents do understand the energy system a bit better, and they certainly see that renewables are eating their lunch (typified by the switch in discourse, beyond the “it’s ugly” and ‘what do you do when there’s no wind” arguments, from “it’s too small to matter” to “it cannot do 100% on its own”) and thus they need to attack and criticise renewables to make it appear that nuclear is still necessary or relevant.

In that – continuing to denigrate renewables, and capturing too much political attention, nuclear proponents achieve only one thing – slowing down the transition to renewables, and making it more expensive than it could be because regulatory changes are not made. They have effectively become the useful idiots of the fossil fuels industry which they still occasionally claim to fight.

And, to conclude, a fun fact that seems ignored by most: France has lost more annual kWh from nuclear than Germany since 2011, which closed its plants. Maybe the blame for weakening the nuclear case should go to France rather than Germany?

August 26, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | spinbuster | Leave a comment

Why the big push for nuclear power as “green”?

Why is it so difficult to recognise that – as is normal with technologies – nuclear energy is obsolescing?

nuclear affections are a military romance. Powerful defence interests – with characteristic secrecy and highly active PR – are mostly driving the dogged persistence.

August 25, 2024 https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2024/08/25/why-the-big-push-for-nuclear-power-as-green/

Heavy lobbying by France and a “military romance” provide some answers, write Andy Stirling and Phil Johnstone

Whatever one’s view of nuclear issues, an open mind is crucial. Massive vested interests and noisy media clamour require efforts to view a bigger picture. A case in point arises around the European Commission’s much criticised proposal – and the European Parliament’s strongly opposed decision – to last year accredit nuclear power as a ‘green’ energy source.

In a series of legal challenges, the European Commission and NGOs including Greenpeace are tussling over what kind and level of ’sustainability’ nuclear power might be held to offer.

To understand how an earlier more sceptical EC position on nuclear was overturned, deeper questions are needed about a broader context. Recent moves in Brussels follow years of wrangling. Journalists reported intense lobbying – especially by the EU’s only nuclear-armed nation: France. At stake is whether inclusion of nuclear power in the controversial ‘green taxonomy’ will open the door to major financial support for ‘sustainable’ nuclear power.

Notions of sustainability were (like climate concerns) pioneered in environmentalism long before being picked up in mainstream policy. And – even when its comparative disadvantages were less evident – criticism of nuclear was always central to green activism. So, it might be understood why current efforts from outside environmentalism to rehabilitate nuclear as ‘sustainable’ are open to accusations of ‘greenwash’ and ‘doublespeak’.

In deciding such questions, the internationally-agreed ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ are a key guide. These address various issues associated with all energy options – including costs and wellbeing, health effects, accident risks, pollution and wastes, landscape impacts and disarmament issues. So, do such comparative pros and cons of nuclear power warrant classification alongside wind, solar and efficiency?

On some aspects, the picture is relatively open. All energy investments yield employment and development benefits, largely in proportion to funding. On all sides, simply counting jobs or cash flowing through favoured options and forgetting alternatives leads to circular arguments. If (despite being highlighted in the Ukraine War), unique vulnerabilities of nuclear power to attack are set aside, then the otherwise largely ‘domestic’ nature of both nuclear and renewables can be claimed to be comparable.

Orderings are more stark on economics and environment. Despite room for many views, it is difficult to deny that history raises especially grave queries about nuclear power. Nuclear costs have long been acknowledged to be far less competitive than renewables. Multiple nuclear accidents have occurred of kinds initially claimed to have ‘negligible’ likelihood. Nuclear waste “solutions” are still largely undeveloped. New questions continually arise about assumptions underpinning ‘safe levels’ of ionising radiation. Build times far exceeding those promised have helped cause nuclear bankruptcy and fraud. Growth rates of renewables surpass what government officials even quite recently claimed to be physically possible. Associated trends nearly all favour renewables.

But what of climate urgency? Does this not justify nuclear proponents’ calls to “do everything” to “keep the nuclear option open” (as if this were an end in itself)? Again: deeper thought might expose this as special pleading. Precisely because climate action is so imperative, isn’t it more rational to prioritise whatever is most substantial, cost effective and rapid?

A more reasoned approach might ask about long-neglected kinds of statistical analysis, which show that national carbon emission reductions tend to associate less with nuclear than with renewable uptake. Key reasons here include that nuclear contributions to climate targets are smaller, slower and more expensive than are offered by renewables. So other evidence that nuclear and renewable energy strategies also tend to conflict further queries the ‘sustainable’ status of nuclear power.

What then of claimed needs for ‘baseload’ power – to manage variable outputs from some renewables? Surprisingly given its public profile, this notion is long abandoned by the electricity industry as “outdated”. Nuclear power is itself inflexible in its own way. Myriad system innovations, grid improvements, demand measures and new storage technologies are all available to better address variable renewables over different timescales. Even in relatively pro-nuclear UK, it is authoritatively documented how a 100% renewable system outperforms any level of nuclear contribution. Even the UK Government now admits that adding these costs still leaves renewables outcompeting nuclear. In less nuclear-committed European countries, the picture is even more stark.

So, as this picture has unfolded, nuclear ‘sustainability’ arguments have retreated through successively undermined claims – that nuclear is “necessary”; brooks “no alternative”; is “more competitive”; uniquely offers to “keep the lights on”; or is just a way to “do everything” (as if this was ever a sensible response to any challenge, especially one as urgent and existential as climate disruption).

Whatever position one starts from, then, a final question arises: why all the fuss? Why should it be now after all these years (just as its comparative performance becomes so much less favourable) that European efforts become so newly energetic to redefine nuclear as ‘sustainable’? Why is it so difficult to recognise that – as is normal with technologies – nuclear energy is obsolescing?

Here, the answer is surprisingly obvious. It is officially repeatedly confirmed in countries working hardest to revive nuclear power – atomic weapons states like the US, France, the UK, Russia and China. Oddly neglected in mainstream energy policy and the media, the picture is especially evident on the defence side. Although skewed public debates leave many unaware, nuclear affections are a military romance. Powerful defence interests – with characteristic secrecy and highly active PR – are mostly driving the dogged persistence.

The result is clear. Dubiously justified in climate terms, elevated consumer prices, government funding and public risk underwriting all help maintain a joint civil/military ‘nuclear industrial base’. In nuclear armed countries like the UK and France, this helps fund – outside defence budgets, off the public books and away from due scrutiny – expensive specialist nuclear skills, supply chains, research facilities, navy recruitment, wider infrastructures. In particular, the building and operating of nuclear propelled submarines would be unaffordable without these concealed cross-subsidies. Without nuclear power, it would become much harder to guarantee the later careers that are so essential in recruiting nuclear-trained officers.

As President Macron recently said “without civilian nuclear, no military nuclear, without military nuclear, no civilian nuclear”. This is the main reason why France is pressing so hard for nuclear to be supported by the European Union as ‘sustainable’. This is why non-nuclear-armed Germany has been more open to grasping nuclear realities. This is why France and Germany find themselves at such loggerheads on this issue. This is why the UK Government so opposes this – and is so fixated on support for general nuclear skills. This is why other nuclear-armed states in general, are so resolutely fixated by the slow, small and costly nuclear response to the climate emergency.

A decision has yet to be reached on whether the inclusion of nuclear by the European Commission in their Green Taxonomy is unlawful. Yet it is clear that nuclear compares poorly to other low carbon technologies when considered in terms of sustainability. What is especially concerning is that the military rationales that are influencing renewed enthusiasm for nuclear are largely unaddressed in policy and wider media coverage. That associated issues are so little discussed, raises grave concerns not just for energy and climate policy, but for European democracy as a whole.

Andy Stirling is Professor of Science & Technology Policy in the Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex. Philip Johnstone is Research Fellow, SPRU, University of Sussex.

August 26, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | climate change, EUROPE, politics international | Leave a comment

Harris’s concluding speech at DNC embraces agenda of global war

Harris declared, “As commander-in-chief, I will ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world.” As for whom this force will be fighting, Harris left little doubt, going on to refer to China, Russia, North Korea and Iran, the same countries that the Biden-Harris administration has targeted in a new document outlining American strategy for a future nuclear world war.

Patrick Martin, 23 August 2024

The four days of the Democratic National Convention culminated Thursday with the acceptance speech by Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s candidate for president.

As a whole, the convention consisted of an endless series of inane speeches, hosannahs to Harris that completely falsified her right-wing career as a prosecutor, declarations from billionaires that Harris would be a “president of joy” and constant invocations of the “historic” character of elevating a (multi-millionaire) African American and Asian American woman to the presidency.

The Democrats sought to substitute entertainment for policy, with a series of Hollywood and pop music celebrities embracing Harris. However, the real content of the policies they propose came through in the candidate’s closing speech: an agenda of escalating global war.

As in any major address by an American capitalist politician, Harris’s acceptance speech was directed to two audiences. For Wall Street and the military-intelligence apparatus, the real base of the Democratic Party, Harris pledged to continue the militaristic foreign policy of the Biden administration to defend the global interests of the American financial aristocracy.

She was a safe pair of hands, she proclaimed, unlike the unreliable and self-interested Trump—a theme sounded on the convention’s final day by a range of right-wing speakers, from former Defense Secretary and CIA Director Leon Panetta, to a string of Republicans who are now endorsing Harris, to a trio of military-intelligence officials now holding seats as Democrats in the House of Representatives.

While Harris’s brief reference to the suffering of the Palestinian population of Gaza was highlighted in media accounts—and will undoubtedly be hailed as a significant shift by the pseudo-left apologists for the Democratic Party—this came after she flatly reiterated an uncompromising pledge to provide unlimited US military aid to Israel: “I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself, and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself.”

In other words, more bombs and missiles to kill tens of thousands more in Gaza and potentially in the West Bank, Lebanon, Yemen, Iran and other countries in the region targeted by imperialism…………………………………………………………………………….. more https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/08/24/turk-a24.html

August 26, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA | 2 Comments

Rafael Grossi to visit Kursk nuclear power plant in Russia , following reports that remains of a drone were found there

https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Grossi-plans-visit-to-Kursk-plant, 23 Aug 24

Russian authorities informed the IAEA that the drone fragments were located roughly 100 metres from the plant’s used nuclear fuel storage facility. The IAEA said it was told that the drone was “suppressed” in the early morning of 22 August.

Grossi has confirmed his intention to personally assess the situation at the site during his visit next week. During his visit, he will “discuss modalities for further activities as may be needed to evaluate the nuclear safety and security conditions of the Kursk nuclear power plant.”

“Military activity in the vicinity of a nuclear power plant is a serious risk to nuclear safety and security,” Grossi said. “My visit to KNPP next week will provide us with timely access to independently assess the situation.”

On 9 August, the IAEA said it was monitoring the situation after Ukrainian forces advanced 30 kilometres into Russia’s Kursk region, bordering Ukraine. They had reportedly advanced within 50 kilometres of the Kursk nuclear power plant.

The report of a drone at the Kursk plant comes just days after a drone struck on a road near the perimeter of the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine. On 17 August, an explosive carried by a drone detonated just outside the plant’s protected area, close to the cooling water sprinkler ponds and about 100 metres from the Dniprovska power line, which is the only remaining 750 kilovolt line providing external power supply to the plant.

Recent days have seen a fire in one of the cooling towers at the Zaporizhzhia plant and damage to a power and water substation in nearby Energodar, where many of the nuclear power plant workers and their families live.

The six-unit Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – or ZNPP – is Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, has been under Russian military control since early March 2022. It is close to the frontline between Russian and Ukrainian forces.

Ukraine and Russia each accuse the other side of putting nuclear safety at risk and breaching the IAEA’s central safety principles for nuclear facilities. Grossi explained at the United Nations in April that the IAEA would not attribute blame without “indisputable proof” and said the agency aims to “keep the information as accurate as we can and we do not trade into speculating”.

August 26, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety | Leave a comment

Britain’s Dirtiest Beaches – Don’t Mention the Pu!

The cocktail of radioactive wastes on our beaches is a direct result of the uranium fuel industry whose product is actually nuclear wastes rather than the ephemeral here today gone tomorrow electricity.

On August 23, 2024 By mariannewildart, https://mariannewildart.wordpress.com/2024/08/23/britains-dirtiest-beaches-dont-mention-the-pu/
Seascale and Haverigg are in the top 10 dirtiest beaches for poo – they also contain Pu (Plutonium) but no-one is looking at the health impacts of long lived radio-toxic pollution on our beaches.

The West Cumbrian coastline cradling the World Heritage Site of the Lake District has two entries in the top 10 dirtiest beaches featured in yesterday’s Express. While much is made quite rightly of the health impacts of sewage pollution no-one is willing to talk about the Pu (Plutonium) on West Cumbrian beaches and in harbours near the worlds riskiest nuclear waste site. Sellafield has a larger workforce 11,000+ than all the surrounding towns and villages put together. According to the Environment Agency “We are working with Sellafield Limited to investigate the potential impact of non-radioactive discharges from the Sellafield site. The primary focus is on sewage originating from the toilet facilities provided on site for the Sellafield workforce. The work is considering whether the level of sewage treatment needs to be enhanced to improve and protect the bathing water quality at Seascale thus protecting public health”. 2024 Bathing Water Profile for Seascale.

Nuclear wastes continue to arrive daily and a vicious cocktail of nuclear wastes continues to pour into the Irish Sea daily. Enough was enough decades ago. But this gargantuan radio-toxic turd on the Lake District coastline continues to accept nuclear wastes from existing reactors in the UK while MPs, government and the nuclear industry agitate for ever more nuclear waste from new build next to Sellafeld and elsewhere.

So the nuclear waste industry’s message is ‘Don’t mention the Pu.’ In fact the nuclear industry has a vested interest in encouraging youngsters to dig for hours on the beaches – its great PR for the nuclear waste industry and says “look we are great neighbours and we are giving you (tax payers) money for your beach events because the beaches are soooo safe.”

August 26, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | UK, wastes | Leave a comment

The UK nuclear lobby’s festival of joyous propaganda.

The Sizewell C team has been raising awareness of the new nuclear power
project at community events across the county this summer. From The Suffolk
Show and the First Light Festival to Sotterley Country Fair, the team have
been engaging with thousands of people across the county as the project
continues to make significant progress.

“We’re really lucky in Suffolk to
have some of the best summer festivals and community events in the
country,” says Marjorie Barnes, Head of Regional External Affairs and
Development, Sizewell C. This week, Sizewell C volunteers attended the
Aldeburgh Carnival, and in September the team will be at the first Leiston
Book Festival.

Sizewell C 23rd Aug 2024

Keeping communities up to date at a summer of Suffolk events

August 26, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | culture and arts, UK | Leave a comment

Fluid leak forces rail shipment to return to the San Onofre nuclear power plant

Federal regulator says the leak had “low safety significance” but Southern California Edison officials admit it should not have happened.

By Rob Nikolewski | rob.nikolewski@sduniontribune.com | The San Diego Union-Tribune, August 21, 2024

A pair of dismantled pressurizers that departed the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station by rail had to be returned to the now-shuttered power plant after it was discovered that one of the giant pieces of equipment had leaked fluid during the trip.

Surveys conducted by the plant’s operator, Southern California Edison, said “no detectable radioactivity” above otherwise normal background levels was detected and there was “no threat to public health and safety, or the environment.” But an official with the utility admitted to the Union-Tribune, “that should not happen.”

An inspection from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission found two violations but the federal regulator’s report described the “safety significance” of the infractions as “low.”

The NRC’s inspection report made no mention of issuing any fines.

But Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, suspects the NRC’s report does not reflect “the severity of (Edison and its contractor’s) screw-up.”

“They had one job to do, which was to transport this pressurizer without any (free) liquid in a container that couldn’t leak,” Lyman said. “And they missed on both counts.”

……………………………What happened?

The San Onofore Nuclear Generating Station, known as SONGS for short, is in the midst of a massive $4.7 billion decommissioning and dismantlement project that is scheduled to wrap up by the end of 2028.

During the course of the demolition, about 1.1 billion pounds of material is expected to be removed, with most of it going by rail. More than 1,000 rail shipments originating from a spur built at SONGS have left the site since dismantlement efforts began some four years ago.

In late June, two large pressurizers were loaded onto special rail cars, on their way to a disposal site in Clive, Utah.

When a nuclear power plant is in operation, pressurizers control reactor coolant systems that use demineralized pure water to remove heat from the reactor core and allow steam to power turbine generators.

The SONGS Unit 2 and Unit 3 pressurizers are big — 37 feet tall and weighing about 100 tons each, with capacity to regulate 16,500 gallons of liquid.

After they were taken out, the pressurizers were labeled as Class A waste, which is the lowest level of radioactive waste as classified by the NRC.

At a stop at a railyard in San Bernardino, a worker noticed a water leakage on the top of the flatbed railcar hauling the Unit 2 pressurizer. SCE officials said the water did not drip onto the ground.

No leaks were found in the Unit 3 pressurizer but both were sent back to SONGS to find out what happened.

Although each pressurizer was supposed to be completely drained, it was soon discovered that 190 gallons of water was found at the bottom of the Unit 2 pressurizer.

“Workers incorrectly believed” all the water had been drained out of the pressurizer before it was loaded onto the rail car, Pontes said.

What now?

An ongoing investigation is trying to determine what went wrong. Until then, the pressurizers from both units will not be rescheduled for shipment back to Utah.

The NRC noted two violations — one for failing to ensure the pressurizer was “properly closed and sealed to prevent release of radioactive content” and the second for not properly packaging it for shipment.

Pontes said the NRC findings are being reviewed by SCE, the dismantlement’s general contractor (called SONGS Decommissioning Solutions) and workers at the facility. “We remain committed, in our oversight role, to ensuring safety and adherence to all regulatory material packaging requirements,” he said.

But Lyman questioned whether the NRC’s actions amounted to a “slap on the wrist.”

“When they process these violations through their system and it spits out ‘low-safety significance,’ I don’t feel it conveys the gravity of the two violations, when compounded, led to a release of this liquid,” Lyman said. “It could have been worse, presumably.”

Other incidents

First opened in 1968, SONGS has not produced electricity since 2012 after a leak in a steam generator tube led to its closing.

In August 2018, a 50-ton canister filled with radioactive spent fuel was being transferred to a dry storage facility on the north end of SONGS. While being lowered into a cavity, the canister was accidentally left suspended almost 20 feet from the floor.

Eventually, the canister was safely lowered but the NRC later fined Edison $116,000 and chided the company for failing “to establish a rigorous process to ensure adequate procedures, training and oversight guidance.”

In April 2022, demolition work was briefly halted after a worker fell about five feet while trying to install a ventilation hose into the floor vault opening, injuring his shoulder.

Once the dismantlement project wraps up, all that is expected to remain at SONGS will be two dry storage facilities; a security building with personnel to look over the waste; a seawall 28 feet high, as measured at average low tide at San Onofre Beach; a walkway connecting two beaches north and south of the plant, and a switchyard with power lines.

The switchyard’s substation without transformers stays put because it houses electricity infrastructure that provides a key interconnection for the power grid in the region. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2024/08/21/fluid-leak-forces-rail-shipment-to-return-to-the-san-onofre-nuclear-power-plant/?fbclid=IwY2xjawE3ZUdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHapLLh1xKud7eOWCb9iO4yGGQxJgVZFSJhbgWcw92LLlNek-XIz_bl-r_g_aem_TD76JCKRAQE_2TARdViWEw

August 26, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | incidents, USA | Leave a comment

Hungary again breaks with West: Ukrainian attack on Kursk is ‘wrong’

Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge , 24 Aug 2024

Hungary has broken with its NATO and EU allies in condemning Ukraine’s Kursk incursion, calling it out as not purely ‘defensive’ but as part of needlessly provocative offensive operations against Russian territory.

Gergely Gulyas, top advisor and spokesman for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in a Thursday press briefing that Budapest is staunchly “pro-peace” – and when asked about the ongoing Kursk invasion, he said: “Ukraine is not only defending, but also attacking. We want a ceasefire and peace.”

Gulyas went on to explain that Hungary is against anything which thwarts potential diplomatic settlement to the war. He said this is “wrong” given the offensive includes a “spillover of the hostilities into Russian territory.”

………………………………………………………………….. Orban has certainly not shared the same enthusiasm for developments in Kursk as other European leaders. For example, recently the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell “reiterated the EU’s full support to the [Ukrainian] people’s fight.”

…………………………….Interestingly, there’s been similar pushback coming from Italy of late related to the Kursk offensive, akin to Hungary’s criticisms:

Italy’s Defence Minister Guido Crosetto has ignited a political firestorm with comments that appear to question Ukraine’s military operations inside Russian territory, POLITICO reported. In an interview, Crosetto warned that ‘no country should invade another country’ and expressed concerns over the conflict escalating into Russian territory, which could complicate efforts toward peace. His remarks have raised doubts about Italy’s commitment to Ukraine, despite Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s staunch support for Kyiv since the start of Russia’s invasion.

Crosetto emphasized that the weapons provided to Ukraine by Italy are intended strictly for defensive purposes, clarifying that these arms ‘do not have the possibility of being used for an attack on Russian territory’.

On a strategic level, while Ukraine forces have certainly dealt a serious morale blow to Kremlin leadership, Russia is still on the advance in the Donbass, where the front line to the conflict is located. If and when Ukraine’s Kursk operation utterly fails, it will have translated into no actual strategic gains in eastern Ukraine. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/hungary-again-breaks-west-ukrainian-attack-kursk-wrong

August 26, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | EUROPE, politics international | Leave a comment

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