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Drones, Nukes, and the Myth of Reactor Safety

The advent of drone warfare has taken the always-present danger of nuclear power plant catastrophe to a terrifying new level.

by Harvey Wasserman , January 29, 2025  https://progressive.org/latest/drones-nukes-and-the-myth-of-reactor-safety-wasserman-20250129/

Recent events on the Ukraine-Russia war front have drawn widespread attention to a terrifying new reality: According to a dispatch from C.J. Chivers published by The New York Times Magazine in December, remote drone operators can now overcome virtually any defensive barrier or evasive maneuver, fundamentally altering the nature of warfare between the two countries and raising new concerns about nuclear reactor safety in the region.

From safe bunkers that are sometimes as far as miles away, Ukrainian operators have begun sending small unmanned devices that cost as little as US $400 to destroy tanks and heavy artillery pieces worth millions. While militaries have traditionally relied on larger, “purpose-built” drones in the past, fighters in Ukraine have recently turned to small, relatively inexpensive hobbyist drones used around the world for everything from firefighting to aerial photography. Many of the drone operators are young and not extensively trained. But their work has allowed the vastly outnumbered Ukrainian fighters to overcome highly complex, sophisticated defensive barriers, and inflict brutal, lethal, and enormously expensive damage with shocking ease.

This new turn in weaponized drone use bears startling implications in relation to nuclear reactor safety. There are eight atomic power plants in the Russo-Ukrainian war zone—six at the Zaporizhzhia site in Ukraine, and two at Kursk in Russia—whose security is continually threatened by the ongoing conflict and by a lack of skilled, reliable operators in the area. If severely damaged, deprived of cooling water, or cut off from back-up power supplies, any one of these plants could melt or explode. Such an event could blanket large swaths of the planet and many of Europe and Asia’s largest cities with deadly radiation, inflicting tremendous human suffering as well as permanent ecological devastation. The damage could exceed that of the 1986 explosion at Chernobyl Unit Four, which contained significantly less core radiation than at Zaporizhzhia and Kursk, both of which have operated far longer.

Reactor containment domes are often constructed with thick, reinforced concrete. But they are far from invulnerable. The routes to major catastrophe—from loss of coolant and back-up power to operator error and structural defects—are too numerous to delineate or discount. A combination of these risks plagues each of the more than 400 nuclear power plants licensed worldwide, including the more than ninety in the United States.

Another recent Times report warns that weaponized drones have become part of a “hybrid” global conflict operating in an amorphous “Gray Zone.” The ability of these drones to wreak lethal and exorbitantly expensive havoc is virtually unlimited. With easily deployed drones like those now ravaging Eastern Europe, hostile nations, rogue armies, small terror groups, or even a lone psychopath could handily turn any number of commercial reactors into lethal engines of a radioactive apocalypse.

Atomic technology has been in civilian use since the 1957 opening of Pennsylvania’s Shippingport reactor. The U.S. Congress at the time promised the public that the “Peaceful Atom” would have comprehensive liability insurance within fifteen years. But nearly seven decades later, no commercial U.S. atomic power plant has blanket private accident insurance against a major catastrophe. Homeowners policies nationwide specifically exempt a nuclear disaster: When push comes to shove, homeowners will pay for their own irradiation. 

All atomic power plants cause environmental damage on both the local and global level. They emit radioactive Carbon-14, expand global CO2 levels in the mining and fuel fabrication process, burn at 540-plus degrees Fahrenheit that heats the atmosphere and nearby bodies of water, bathe their neighborhoods in “low level” radiation, and create unmanageable wastes. What’s more, they cost far more than renewables by factors of 2 to 400 percent, while producing inflexible “baseload” power that clogs the grid.  

Atomic power plants have always been vulnerable to explosion due to natural disasters such as the one at Fukushima in 2011, systemic mismanagement such as that at Chernobyl, or military and terror attacks. The advent of drone warfare in addition to all of this has raised the threat level to a terrifying new height. But in spite of this, Congress approved a forty-year extension of the original federal insurance exemption in 2024. This means that by the 2060s, the industry may have operated an entire century without ever obtaining the basic private insurance necessary to protect the public from a major radiation release.

A new level of terror is now being inflicted in the Ukraine-Russian war zone by drones once considered to be harmless, frivolous techno-gadgets. The nuclear industry’s insistence that we have nothing to fear from military or terror attacks on its uninsured fleet has lost any residual credibility. Given the horrific new reality of drone warfare, generating hyper-expensive radioactive power and waste from hot, dirty, decrepit reactors is less defensible than ever.

January 31, 2025 Posted by | safety, technology, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Former Miss America’s Australian nuclear tour clouded by Chinese AI blow to her employer

Royce Kurmelovs, Jan 30, 2025,  https://reneweconomy.com.au/former-miss-americas-australian-nuclear-tour-clouded-by-chinese-ai-blow-to-her-employer/

Miss America 2023 winner Grace Stanke has begun her Australian tour to promote nuclear power, just as the US energy giant that employs her has taken a big market hit after Chinese company DeepSeek claimed to have found a cheaper way to make AI.

Stanke, who flew into Perth on Wednesday, is a nuclear engineer who works in public relations for Constellation to promote nuclear technology, and has been brought out for an Australian tour by campaign group Nuclear For Australia in an attempt to drum up local support for the technology.

Nuclear For Australia is nominally headed by 18-year-old Will Shackel. But Stanke’s tour has reportedly been bankrolled by Australian businessman Dick Smith, who also provided the funding to establish the group.

The tour comes amid an aggressive expansion drive by Constellation, which holds a suite of nuclear and fossil fuel assets. According to the company’s 2024 Sustainability Report, nuclear makes up 67% of its generation capacity, with natural gas and oil making up 25% and renewables and storage accounting for 8%.

Constellation has increasingly been looking to capitalise on the development of AI as a driver in future electricity demand that it hopes to meet with nuclear power.

In September last year the company announced it would buy the Three Mile End nuclear facility under a deal to supply Microsoft with power to run its AI data centres.

Earlier in January, Constellation bought out rival Calvine for $US 27 billion, a move that meant it acquired the company’s gas-plants.

As gas-peaking plants currently help smooth out spikes in the wholesale electricity market by turning on during periods of high demand — at the expense of nuclear generators — the acquisition potentially gives Constellation greater influence over wholesale prices.

Late last week, President Donald Trump announced the US would pour $US 500 billion into AI development in what has been described as an “arms race” with China, a decision welcomed by Constellation CEO Joe Dominguez.

“President Trump is right that sustaining and enhancing America’s global AI dominance goes hand in hand with reliable, abundant American electricity,” he said. “Data center developers, generators, utilities, and other stakeholders should continue to work together to accomplish the President’s goals on behalf of the American people.”

On Tuesday, however, the assumption that power-hungry chipsets needed to train and run AI data centres would continue to drive demand for “clean” nuclear power ran into a wall.

Chinese firm DeepSeek announced it developed an open large-language model (LLM) that provides roughly the same service as ChatGPT with a smaller team and a fraction of the hardware as their US counterparts.

With the Chinese market subject to sanctions that limit access to the full-power graphics processing units (GPUs) needed to build their own models, the company was forced to find a workaround to do more with less.

These GPUs perform the calculations needed to drive LLMs and are manufactured by chipmaker Nvidia that was, until Wednesday, considered the world’s most valuable publicly-traded company with a market cap of $3.45 trillion. That changed with the latest news from DeepSeek.

In December, DeepSeek claimed it cost (USD) $5.6m and two months to develop its V3 model – a portion of what it cost to create ChatGPT. The accuracy of this figure, however, is questionable as the price of electricity is unknown.

Last week the company released the full version of its R1 model that it said is 30-times cheaper to run than equivalent models produced by US competitors such as OpenAI. The company has not released the training data, but has published papers outlining its methods, effectively allowing anyone to take DeepSeek work and expand upon it for free.

The announcement of a cheaper, less-demanding model triggered a massive 17% drop in Nvidia shares — wiping off $USD593bn, and knocked 20 per cent off the price of Constellation shares. By Thursday Constellation’s performance had partially recovered but not nearly enough to make up for Tuesday’s losses.

These events coincide with the arrival of 22-year-old Stanke, now a pro-nuclear influencer, in Australia to help local campaigns sell the technology to the Australian public.

Her tour includes appearances in Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney, a parliamentary briefing and appearances at private events, including a community meeting in Lithgow, New South Wales.

The town selection is interesting as it has been a flashpoint for an anti-wind and anti-renewables campaign and has traditionally been a strong Nationals stronghold.

Lithgow falls within the federal seat of Calare which is currently held by federal independent Andrew Gee, who resigned from the National Party in 2022 over its opposition to the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

January 31, 2025 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, spinbuster | Leave a comment

DeepSeek: how a small Chinese AI company is shaking up US tech heavyweights.

DeepSeek’s models and techniques have been released under the free MIT License, which means anyone can download and modify them.

https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2025/01/29/deepseek-ai-china-us-tech.html January 28, 2025 

Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company DeepSeek has sent shockwaves through the tech community, with the release of extremely efficient AI models that can compete with cutting-edge products from US companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic.

Founded in 2023, DeepSeek has achieved its results with a fraction of the cash and computing power of its competitors.

DeepSeek’s “reasoning” R1 model, released last week, provoked excitement among researchers, shock among investors, and responses from AI heavyweights. The company followed up on January 28 with a model that can work with images as well as text.

What DeepSeek did

In December, DeepSeek released its V3 model. This is a very powerful “standard” large language model that performs at a similar level to OpenAI’s GPT-4o and Anthropic’s Claude 3.5.

While these models are prone to errors and sometimes make up their own facts, they can carry out tasks such as answering questions, writing essays and generating computer code. On some tests of problem-solving and mathematical reasoning, they score better than the average human.

V3 was trained at a reported cost of about US$5.58 million. This is dramatically cheaper than GPT-4, for example, which cost more than US$100 million to develop.

DeepSeek also claims to have trained V3 using around 2,000 specialised computer chips, specifically H800 GPUs made by NVIDIA. This is again much fewer than other companies, which may have used up to 16,000 of the more powerful H100 chips.

On January 20, DeepSeek released another model, called R1. This is a so-called “reasoning” model, which tries to work through complex problems step by step. These models seem to be better at many tasks that require context and have multiple interrelated parts, such as reading comprehension and strategic planning.

The R1 model is a tweaked version of V3, modified with a technique called reinforcement learning. R1 appears to work at a similar level to OpenAI’s o1, released last year.

DeepSeek also used the same technique to make “reasoning” versions of small open-source models that can run on home computers.

This release has sparked a huge surge of interest in DeepSeek, driving up the popularity of its V3-powered chatbot app and triggering a massive price crash in tech stocks as investors re-evaluate the AI industry. At the time of writing, chipmaker NVIDIA has lost around US$600 billion in value.

How DeepSeek did it

DeepSeek’s breakthroughs have been in achieving greater efficiency: getting good results with fewer resources. In particular, DeepSeek’s developers have pioneered two techniques that may be adopted by AI researchers more broadly.

The first has to do with a mathematical idea called “sparsity”. AI models have a lot of parameters that determine their responses to inputs (V3 has around 671 billion), but only a small fraction of these parameters is used for any given input.

However, predicting which parameters will be needed isn’t easy. DeepSeek used a new technique to do this, and then trained only those parameters. As a result, its models needed far less training than a conventional approach.

The other trick has to do with how V3 stores information in computer memory. DeepSeek has found a clever way to compress the relevant data, so it is easier to store and access quickly.

What it means

DeepSeek’s models and techniques have been released under the free MIT License, which means anyone can download and modify them.

While this may be bad news for some AI companies – whose profits might be eroded by the existence of freely available, powerful models – it is great news for the broader AI research community.

At present, a lot of AI research requires access to enormous amounts of computing resources. Researchers like myself who are based at universities (or anywhere except large tech companies) have had limited ability to carry out tests and experiments.

More efficient models and techniques change the situation. Experimentation and development may now be significantly easier for us.

For consumers, access to AI may also become cheaper. More AI models may be run on users’ own devices, such as laptops or phones, rather than running “in the cloud” for a subscription fee.

For researchers who already have a lot of resources, more efficiency may have less of an effect. It is unclear whether DeepSeek’s approach will help to make models with better performance overall, or simply models that are more efficient.

January 31, 2025 Posted by | China, technology | Leave a comment

An “American Iron Dome”: Perhaps the Most Ridiculous Trump Idea Yet


The Iron Dome’s functionality depends on Israel’s comparatively miniscule size and proximity to enemies. This makes it particularly hard to imagine a similar setup in the US, which is over 400 times the geographical size of Israel. Such an apparatus, national security analyst Joseph Cirincione estimated, would cost about 2.5 trillion dollars. That’s over three times the country’s entire projected military budget for 2025.

A central campaign promise, the proposed $2 trillion-plus missile shield is, to experts, silly.

Sophie Hurwitz, September 27, 2024

Donald Trump’s Republican Party platform, released in July, contains little in terms of tangible policy proposals.

But one of the few concrete ideas is a call to (apologies for the capitalization) “PREVENT WORLD WORLD III” by building “A GREAT IRON DOME MISSILE DEFENSE SHIELD OVER OUR ENTIRE COUNTRY”—a plan that experts say is nearly impossible to execute, unnecessary, and hard to even comprehend. 

Trump has vowed to build this Iron Dome in multiple speeches. It is among his campaign’s 20 core promises. The former president has said that the missile shield would be “MADE IN AMERICA,” creating jobs, as well as stopping foreign attacks. 

While it might sound nice to talk of building the “greatest dome of them all,” as Trump recently said, Jeffrey Lewis, a missile expert at the Middlebury’s James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, says such a plan is ridiculous.

“It’s dramatically unclear to me what any of this means,” Lewis said of the Iron Dome idea, “other than just treating it like the insane ramblings of a senile old person.”

It may be more useful to consider an American Iron Dome as a bombastic businessman’s branding exercise, rather than a viable policy position, said Lewis: “The Iron Dome here has just become a kind of brand name, like Xerox or Kleenex for missile defense.”

The Iron Dome, a short-range missile defense system created by Israeli state-owned company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and American weapons manufacturer Raytheon, has been a prized part of the country’s military arsenal since it became operational in 2011. It is not, as the name suggests, an impenetrable shield. It’s more mobile: when a short-range missile reaches Israel’s airspace, “interceptor missiles” are launched to blow them up before they can touch the ground.


The Iron Dome’s functionality depends on Israel’s comparatively miniscule size and proximity to enemies. This makes it particularly hard to imagine a similar setup in the US, which is over 400 times the geographical size of Israel. Such an apparatus, national security analyst Joseph Cirincione estimated, would cost about 2.5 trillion dollars. That’s over three times the country’s entire projected military budget for 2025.

uch a system would also be unnecessary. As of now, there are no armed groups sending missiles toward the United States from within a theoretical Iron Dome’s 40-mile interception range. Such a system “couldn’t even protect Mar-a-Lago from missiles fired from the Bahamas, some 80 miles away,” Cirincione wrote in late July. 

America’s pre-existent missile defense network, which has been in place since the Bush administration, is currently made up of 44 interceptors based in California and Alaska, geared towards longer-range missiles, such as those that could be fired from North Korea. But the system has performed abysmally in tests, despite Republicans generally claiming “it works,” said Lewis. (Groups like the right-wing Heritage Foundation have been calling for increased missile defense funding since at least the 1990s.)

“This is why it’s so hard to make heads or tails of what Trump is saying,” Lewis continued. “Is Trump saying the system in Alaska doesn’t work? Is Trump saying that Canada is going to develop artillery rockets to use against North Dakota?” 

January 31, 2025 Posted by | USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Sweden building world’s second nuclear waste storage site amid safety concerns

Jan 16, By Jack Aylmer (Energy Correspondent),   https://san.com/cc/sweden-building-worlds-second-nuclear-waste-storage-site-amid-safety-concerns/

Sweden has started building the world’s second-ever long-term storage facility for spent nuclear fuel. The site is located in Forsmark, Sweden, approximately 90 miles north of Stockholm, Sweden.

The site is designed to securely contain highly radioactive waste for 100,000 years. Finland remains the only other country nearing completion of a permanent storage solution for nuclear waste.

Permanent storage for nuclear waste has been a longstanding challenge for the industry since the advent of commercial nuclear reactors in the 1950s.

Globally, around 300,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel are awaiting disposal, according to the World Nuclear Association. Nuclear scientists currently store most of this waste in cooling ponds near the reactors that produce it.

The Forsmark repository will feature nearly 40 miles of tunnels buried over 1,600 feet deep in bedrock estimated to be 1.9 billion years old.

Engineers designed the site to hold 12,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel. The fuel will be encased in corrosion-resistant copper capsules, packed in clay and buried.

Officials expect the site to begin receiving waste in the late 2030s, and final closure is projected for around 2080, when the site reaches capacity.

However, the project faces potential delays due to safety concerns. MKG, the Swedish nongovernmental organization Office for Nuclear Waste Review, filed an appeal with a Swedish court calling for additional reviews of the facility.

MKG highlighted research suggesting the copper capsules could corrode over time, potentially releasing radioactive elements into groundwater.

The estimated cost of developing the repository exceeds $1 billion, and will be funded by Sweden’s nuclear industry. It is intended to store waste from the country’s existing nuclear power plants, but will not accommodate waste from future reactors. Sweden already announced plans to construct 10 additional nuclear reactors by 2045.

January 31, 2025 Posted by | Sweden, wastes | Leave a comment

The surface of our oceans is now warming four times faster than it was in the late 1980s

 The surface of our oceans is now warming four times faster than it was in
the late 1980s. The rate of the ocean’s warming has more than quadrupled
over the past four decades, according to researchers. While ocean
temperatures were rising at about 0.06 degrees Celsius per decade in the
late 1980s, they are now increasing at 0.27 degrees Celsius per decade,
scientists said Tuesday.

 Independent 28th Jan 2025, https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/oceans-heat-temperature-climate-warming-b2687248.html

January 31, 2025 Posted by | climate change, oceans | Leave a comment

NuScale Power Corporation (SMR) Stock Plunges 25% Amid DeepSeek AI Concerns and Reevaluation of AI-Driven Energy Demand

Yahoo! Finance, Ghazal Ahmed, Thu, January 30, 2025 

We recently published an article titled These 29 AI Electricity, Infrastructure Stocks Are Crashing Due to DeepSeek News. In this article, we are going to take a look at where NuScale Power Corporation (NYSE:SMR) stands against the other AI stocks.

Investors are pulling back from the artificial intelligence trade. Previously, a report by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory highlighted that US data centers are expected to use 6.7% to 12% of all power by 2028. However, one artificial intelligence startup has upended these estimates, leaving investors wondering whether the anticipated surge in power demand and data center expansion still holds.

Energy, infrastructure, and real-estate stocks were tanking on Monday, even though they were known to be less crowded alternatives to stocks such as Nvidia. Monday’s broad-market selloff has revealed how a vast number of energy-related companies have been banking on the AI boom and the anticipated power surge it was expected to bring.

DeepSeek, an artificial intelligence startup from China, caused a frenzy in the AI world after launching its latest AI models. The company claims that these models built are at par or better than industry-leading models in the United States. They require fewer chips and are made at a fraction of the cost. All of these updates are now threatening to upset the technology world. Once the best-performing securities over the past 18 months, US electricity providers are now one of the hardest hit sectors with investors reevaluating their outlooks toward artificial intelligence and the magnitude of money that they are spending………………………………….

DeepSeek AI is also threatening the dominance of current leaders in the artificial intelligence world. This could potentially slow down the deployment of their data centers. However, an energy economist at the University of Houston noted that the wider adoption of AI could be positive news…………………………………………………………

NuScale Power Corporation (NYSE:SMR)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 18

Share Price Decline: (25.02%)

NuScale Power Corporation (NYSE:SMR) designs and markets small modular reactors (SMRs). Another stock heavily tied to the AI world, Corvallis-based NuScale has previously benefited from the idea that AI-driven electricity demand increases could boost its small modular reactor business. Now that Wall Street is reevaluating the energy requirements of AI, energy and related utilities stocks have been tanking. In particular, NuScale saw its shares plunge by 25% following the news regarding DeepSeek. Not only do DeepSeek’s AI models use less computing power and chips, but the model released is also open-source. This move has made it harder for competitors to justify the huge costs that they have been spending on hardware, software, and expertise needed to develop similar systems…………….https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nuscale-power-corporation-smr-stock-015431414.html

January 31, 2025 Posted by | business and costs, Small Modular Nuclear Reactors | Leave a comment

Concerns about Agnew Lake Uranium Mine Unheard at Nuclear Commission Meeting.

Northwatch, 29 Jan 25

Saskatoon – Canada’s federal nuclear regulator is holding a public meeting in Saskatoon today about uranium mines, including closed and decommissioned uranium mines in northeastern Ontario. In their overview presentation this morning Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) staff omitted any discussion of the closed mines in Elliot Lake or the Agnew Lake mine, which were issues of high concern to intervenors including the Township of Nairn and Hyman and the northeastern Ontario environmental group Northwatch.

The Township of Nairn and Hyman retained a technical expert and provide a written intervention outlining their community’s growing concerns regarding the environmental and public health risks associated with the Agnew Lake Tailings Management Area (TMA). The Township noted that the 2023 Annual Report prepared by the Ministry of Mines exposes critical deficiencies in the Agnew Lake TMA’s environmental monitoring and contamination levels. Groundwater, surface water, and soil samples collected during the monitoring period indicate widespread exceedances of contaminants and heavy metals.


“Nothing could be more important to Nairn & Hyman than our drinking water and natural resources. The Agnew Lake Tailings Management Area (ALTMA) needs to be adequately managed to safeguard our immediate neighbours, waterways, and the surrounding environment”, commented Mayor Amy Mazey.

“We have profound concerns for the lack of site-specific details contained in this report. For instance, the report fails to acknowledge contaminant exceedances in the surface water, ground water and sediment adjacent to the site that include uranium, radium, arsenic and cyanide. We are hopeful that the CNSC will take these concerns seriously and act appropriately by expertly managing ALTMA.”

Northwatch outlined similar concerns in their written intervention, including general comments on the CNSC regulatory report, which it found to be lacking detail and sufficient supporting information and rationale for conclusions, and noted that most concerns Northwatch and its technical experts had identified during previous reviews did not appear to have been resolved, and many concerns have continued or perhaps worsened during the current reporting period, particularly at the Agnew Lake site. Northwatch also commented on negative trends in the decommissioned mines in the Elliot Lake area, including rising concentrations of radium in water discharge and sediments and poor performance in meeting water quality benchmarks.

The Township of Nairn and Hyman and Northwatch both expressed strong concerns about a proposal to transfer large low-level radioactive wastes from just outside North Bay to deposit on the tailings management area at the Agnew Lake Mine.

During a 2015 inspection, CNSC staff found sections of the tailings were exposed where the tailings management area cover had degraded. The response proposed by the Ministry of Mines, who is licensed to manage the Agnew Lake Mine, was to transfer 20,000 m3 of niobium bearing material classified as naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) from the former Beaucage Mine near North Bay and place it on the Agnew Lake tailings. Northwatch objected in its 2018 written intervention on the grounds of there having been insufficient review of the potential for negative effects of adding the niobium wastes to the Agnew Lake tailings. At a public meeting in Nairn Centre on September 11th of this year, repairs to the tailings cover had still not been done and no information on the potential cumulative effects of adding the niobium waste to the uranium tailings was presented by staff from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission or the Ontario Ministry of Mines.

Neither the Township of Nairn and Hyman or Northwatch were permitted to present at the Commission meeting underway today in Saskatoon. CNSC staff presented the regulatory report in the morning session but included no mention of the closed mines in northeastern Ontario or the several significant concerns raised by the Township of Nairn and Hyman or Northwatch in their written interventions.

The public meeting is being streamed live at https://cnsc.isilive.ca/ and will continue throughout the day. The Commission has the option of asking questions of CNSC staff about the written interventions during the afternoon session.

The Township of Nairn and Hyman and the Township of Baldwin will be holding a Joint Public Meeting on February 18 at 7:00 p.m. in the community centre in Nairn Centre to provide updates to residents on the review undertaken by the Township of Nairn and Hyman and various meeting outcomes, including today’s public meeting of the CNSC.

January 31, 2025 Posted by | Canada, Uranium | Leave a comment

Somerset Green councillor slams Sir Keir Starmer over Hinkley Point C comments

Why should UK environmental protection be sacrificed for the profit of the French nationalised electricity industry?”

Sir Keir Starmer is trying to make it harder to oppose major infrastructure projects

By Daniel Mumby, Local Democracy Reporter,  Somerset Live 28th Jan 2025, https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/somerset-green-councillor-slams-sir-9900421
The leader of the Green Party on Somerset Council has attacked the prime minister following his recent comments on Hinkley Point C. EDF Energy has courted controversy over plans to create new saltmarshes in the Severn estuary to offset the environmental impact of Somerset‘s new nuclear power station.

In an article for Mail Online, prime minister Sir Keir Starmer lambasted efforts to block major infrastructure projects, singling out opposition to the acoustic fish deterrent which EDF had originally proposed for Hinkley Point C. These comments have drawn the ire of Councillor Martin Dimery, who warned Mr Starmer that his stance would lose him support across the south west.

Mr Starmer’s comments came as the government announced reforms to the judicial review system, restricting the grounds on which such reviews could be lodged to “stop blockers getting in the way” of infrastructure projects. He said in his article: “There are countless examples of nimbys and zealots gumming up the legal system often for their own ideological blind spots to stop the government building the infrastructure the country needs……………………………………

In an open letter to Mr Starmer, he said: “I wish I was joking when I point out that the sonar device due to be installed at Hinkley Point C was agreed from the outset to avoid the mass carnage of fish being sucked into the reactor’s mechanism, thus destroying huge quantities of the Bristol Channel’s fish stock. Fish remnants can also cause blockage and mechanical failure in nuclear power plants.

“Last year, EDF applied to Somerset Council to scrap the sonar device in an attempt to cut construction costs. As chairman of the climate and place scrutiny committee, I refused to sign off this appalling attempt to disregard the natural environment and the region’s fishing industry for the sake of EDF’s profits. Why should UK environmental protection be sacrificed for the profit of the French nationalised electricity industry?”

Reports recently resurfaced in the national press that Mr Starmer stated “I hate tree-huggers” at a shadow cabinet meeting in July 2023, at which current net zero secretary Ed Miliband MP unveiled new energy policies to combat climate change.

Mr Starmer denied using this phrase, telling BBC correspondent Laura Kuennsberg that his comments about green energy had been taken out of context.

Mr Dimery added, in direct reference to these claims: “‘Tree hugger’ I may be, prime minister, but if you’re so appalled at the prospect of individuals standing for the environment and against disreputable business practice, then you may find you lose a great deal of support from elected councillors of all political persuasions.”

January 31, 2025 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

Closer than ever: It is now 89 seconds to midnight

Science and Security Board
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Editor, John Mecklin, January 28, 2025

In 2024, humanity edged ever closer to catastrophe. Trends that have deeply concerned the Science and Security Board continued, and despite unmistakable signs of danger, national leaders and their societies have failed to do what is needed to change course. Consequently, we now move the Doomsday Clock from 90 seconds to 89 seconds to midnight—the closest it has ever been to catastrophe. Our fervent hope is that leaders will recognize the world’s existential predicament and take bold action to reduce the threats posed by nuclear weapons, climate change, and the potential misuse of biological science and a variety of emerging technologies.

In setting the Clock one second closer to midnight, we send a stark signal: Because the world is already perilously close to the precipice, a move of even a single second should be taken as an indication of extreme danger and an unmistakable warning that every second of delay in reversing course increases the probability of global disaster.

In regard to nuclear risk, the war in Ukraine, now in its third year, looms over the world; the conflict could become nuclear at any moment because of a rash decision or through accident or miscalculation. Conflict in the Middle East threatens to spiral out of control into a wider war without warning. The countries that possess nuclear weapons are increasing the size and role of their arsenals, investing hundreds of billions of dollars in weapons that can destroy civilization. The nuclear arms control process is collapsing, and high-level contacts among nuclear powers are totally inadequate given the danger at hand. Alarmingly, it is no longer unusual for countries without nuclear weapons to consider developing arsenals of their own—actions that would undermine longstanding nonproliferation efforts and increase the ways in which nuclear war could start.

The impacts of climate change increased in the last year as myriad indicators, including sea-level rise and global surface temperature, surpassed previous records. The global greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change continued to rise. Extreme weather and other climate change-influenced events—floods, tropical cyclones, heat waves, drought, and wildfires—affected every continent. The long-term prognosis for the world’s attempts to deal with climate change remains poor, as most governments fail to enact the financing and policy initiatives necessary to halt global warming. Growth in solar and wind energy has been impressive but remains insufficient to stabilize the climate. Judging from recent electoral campaigns, climate change is viewed as a low priority in the United States and many other countries…………………………………………………………………….. more https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/2025-statement/

January 31, 2025 Posted by | weapons and war | Leave a comment

Ukraine nuclear fears increase amid warnings from IAEA

Emerging Risks 28th Jan 2025, https://www.emergingrisks.co.uk/ukraine-nuclear-fears-increase-amid-warnings-from-iaea/

The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)  has said he is growing increasingly concerned that the organisation’s efforts to prevent a major nuclear incident in war-torn Ukraine in under increasing threat.

It comes as Rafael Mariano Grossi (above) revealed the agency’s team based at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) has heard frequent explosions from outside the site over the past week.

He added The team reported hearing multiple instances of such military activity in recent days, at varying distances from the ZNPP. There was no damage reported to the plant itself. Although the sound of nearby military action has been a common occurrence ever since the IAEA established a continued presence at the ZNPP in September 2022, it has happened virtually daily in recent weeks.

“For almost three years now, we have been doing everything we can to help prevent a nuclear accident at the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant and elsewhere in Ukraine,” Grossi explained. “An accident has not occurred, but the situation is not improving. It is still precarious. I remain seriously concerned about nuclear safety and security in Ukraine, including at the Zaporizhzhya site. Our work is far from over.”


He continued as part of the ongoing work to monitor developments relevant for nuclear safety and security, the IAEA team has continued to conduct walkdowns across the site – including but not limited to the main and emergency control rooms of four reactor units and one turbine hall – and observed and discussed various safety-related maintenance activities with the plant.

The IAEA team was also informed that the ZNPP is procuring three new mobile diesel generators, similar to those received late last year. They are in addition to the site’s 20 fixed emergency diesel generators that are designed to provide on-site power if there is a total loss of off-site power.

Separately, the ZNPP said that four diesel steam generators were put into operation for ten days to provide the steam needed to process liquid radioactive waste. These generators were commissioned a year ago.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, the IAEA said  air raid alarms were heard on several occasions at Ukraine’s three operating nuclear power plants (NPPs) – Khmelnytskyy, Rivne and South Ukraine – as well as at the Chornobyl site. At the Khmelnytskyy NPP, the IAEA team members have taken shelter at their residence three times in recent days due to such alerts.

At the Khmelnytskyy and South Ukraine NPPs and the Chornobyl site, the IAEA teams were informed of instances of drones being detected at distances ranging from 2 to 30 km from the sites.

Despite such military activities, Ukraine’s nine operating nuclear power reactors have been operating at full capacity this week, safely generating much-needed electricity during the cold winter months.

Separately, the Agency continued with deliveries under its comprehensive programme of nuclear safety and security assistance to Ukraine. Last week, the Chornobyl site received equipment to enhance its nuclear security system. The delivery, the 104th organised by the IAEA since the start of the armed conflict, was supported with funds from the United Kingdom.

January 30, 2025 Posted by | incidents, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Nuke Mars, Elon? Not with your Outer Space Treaty

27th January 2025,
https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/nuke-mars-elon-not-with-your-outer-space-treaty/

The CEO of Tesla Motors and space entrepreneur Elon Musk may not be celebrating today’s 58th anniversary of the Outer Space Treaty because it stands between him and his ambition to ‘Nuke Mars’.

In September 2015, the eccentric billionaire first spoke on US chat show The Late Show with Stephen Colbert of ‘nuking Mars’. In later interviews later that year, Mr Musk described exploding nuclear weapons over the Martian poles every few seconds to create two pulsing ‘suns’ that would warm up the surface as a prelude to his plan to initiate human colonization of the Red Planet.

Mr Musk appeared to marginalise the ethics, excusing the exercise as the explosions would take place “above the planet, not on the planet” – the atomic bomb explosions in Japan were also airbursts – and, of the challenge of establishing fusion weapons in orbit above the surface and then sequentially exploding them, he said: “Yeah absolutely no problem.”

Clearly at that time Mr Musk was unaware, or dismissive, of the Outer Space Treaty – or Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies – which first opened for signature on 27 January 1967 and became effective on the 10 October of that year. 115 states parties have signed the treaty, including all space-faring nations.

Intended to annul fears that, in the missile age, space could become yet another contested battleground and a further location in which to station weapons of mass destruction, the treaty contains several key provisions, specifically the prohibition of nuclear weapons in space, limiting the use of the moon and other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes, and banning military bases, testing weapons or conducting military manoeuvres on such bodies.

Clearly then deploying and using nuclear weapons in space is prohibited under international law, and Mr Musk being an Earth-bound US citizen is subject to the laws and obligations applicable to the United States.

Whether the treaty would prevent Mr Musk establishing a ‘colony’ is debatable, even if in name only. The treaty provides for space and any celestial body to be freely explored and used by all nations, but on whether he could claim hegemony the treaty is moot for it only precludes nations from claiming sovereignty over space and celestial bodies, not individuals.

Clearly at the time the idea of a powerful individual in the future becoming sole ruler of an entire planet was regarded as inconceivable, which seems a little bizarre when many of the legislators would have been brought up on a cinematic diet of Flash Gordon with the Emperor Ming and Dan Dare with the Mekon.

Unsurprisingly in 2015, Mr Musk’s pronouncements led to him being branded a ‘Bond villain’ in certain quarters, but he was clearly comfortable with it as he took to wearing a tee shirt specifying his ambition. Now with his recent ‘elevation’ to become President Trump’s special advisor on government efficiency and, seemingly, space, his ambition may be one step closer to becoming reality for in President Trump, he has found an ally reported to have also advocated for using nuclear weapons to overcome geographical challenges.

In August 2019, the news website Axios wrote that Trump had asked his top national security officials to “consider using nuclear bombs to weaken or destroy hurricanes.” Axios alleged that in a briefing on hurricanes, the 45th President postulated: “[Hurricanes] start forming off the coast of Africa, as they’re moving across the Atlantic, we drop a bomb inside the eye of the hurricane, and it disrupts it. Why can’t we do that?” It was reported that attendees were astonished, but the President later claimed it to be ‘Fake News.’

Who knows? But with an office holder restored to the White House with little regard for international institutions and with a reputation for making outrageous utterances, counselled by an advisor with a proclaimed desire to conquer space and nuke and colonise planets, the Nuclear Free Local Authorities would not be surprised if US diplomats are instructed to seek amendments to the treaty to enable Mr Musk’s ambitions to made legal, even if, for now, they remain impractical.

January 30, 2025 Posted by | space travel | Leave a comment

Russia claims nuclear plant targeted during massive Ukrainian drone attack

Russia and Ukraine continue to swap daily barrages, with the prospects of ceasefire talks appearing slim.

Aljazeera, 29 Jan 2025

A nuclear power plant was among targets during a massive Ukrainian drone attack, Russian officials have said.

Moscow said on Wednesday that the country’s energy infrastructure had come under attack by at least 100 drones overnight. Ukraine also reported strikes. The continuing barrages were accompanied by barbs from the two countries’ presidents, suggesting little prospect of peace talks.

The Russian Ministry of Defence said on Telegram that 104 drones were involved in raids across western Russia, many targeting power and oil facilities.

Local officials claimed that air defence systems had destroyed one drone that had attempted to strike the nuclear power plant in the western region of Smolensk.

“According to preliminary information, one of the drones was shot down during an attempt to attack a nuclear power facility,” Governor Vasily Anokhin said on the Telegram messaging app. “There were no casualties or damage.”

The Smolensk Nuclear Power Plant, the largest power generating plant in Russia’s northwest, was working normally on Wednesday morning, RIA state news agency reported, citing the plant’s press service.

Russia’s air defences reportedly destroyed drones over nine regions, including 11 over Smolensk, which sits on the border with Belarus. Nearly half were hit over Kursk, where Ukrainian troops have occupied several villages for months following an incursion.

Ukraine and Russia have been swapping drone and missile strikes on an almost daily basis, with energy infrastructure a particular target amid winter.

Warnings that the fighting could spark a nuclear disaster have been sounded since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022. However, most of the concern has focused on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia plant, which sits on the frontlines in the east of the country…………………………………………………………………….https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/29/russia-claims-nuclear-plant-targeted-during-massive-ukrainian-drone-attack

January 30, 2025 Posted by | incidents, Russia, Ukraine | Leave a comment

DeepSeek Launch Should Prompt AI Security Reviews Across the Nuclear Industry

Power, Jan 29, 2025, by Trey Lauderdale

The new artificial intelligence (AI) model from China called DeepSeek created a stock market meltdown on Monday, with the Nasdaq composite dropping 3% and the S&P 500 falling 1.5%. Beyond hammering the share prices of the world’s most valuable companies, DeepSeek has potential implications on vast swaths of America’s innovation industries—including energy.

While U.S. technology companies must quickly respond to the challenges posed by the new DeepSeek model, and the AI innovations to come, other businesses—like the energy companies currently exploring uses for AI in their operations—have a different responsibility. Utilities, independent power producers, and energy companies of all stripes, must take a more measured approach and use this as a teachable moment for their employees to understand the safety and security risks inherent in AI tools. They have to underscore that employees should treat new AI tools no differently from other technologies that enter the enterprise, and use the safety and security standards that inform every decision on technology adoption.

Artificial intelligence has the incredible potential to make energy facilities—and particularly nuclear energy facilities—easier to develop, operate, orchestrate, and maintain. But only if these applications can adhere to the strictest standards of data security, privacy, and operational integrity. Nowhere is this more important than among the nation’s nuclear fleet operators……………………………………………………………………………. more https://www.powermag.com/deepseek-launch-should-prompt-ai-security-reviews-across-the-nuclear-industry/

January 30, 2025 Posted by | safety | Leave a comment

Trump orders ‘Iron Dome for America’ in sweeping missile defense push

The order’s most contentious element directs the Department of Defense to pursue space-based interceptors — weapons positioned in orbit to destroy incoming missiles. While proponents argue these could provide global coverage and early intercept capabilities, critics warn they could trigger an arms race and undermine existing treaties. 

The order sets a bold agenda to address emerging threats, including hypersonic missiles, through advanced technological solutions, including space-based interceptors.

by Sandra Erwin, January 28, 2025,  https://spacenews.com/trump-orders-iron-dome-for-america-in-sweeping-missile-defense-push/?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Iron%20Dome%20for%20America&utm_campaign=FIRST%20UP%202025-01-28

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Jan. 27 that calls for the development of a sweeping new missile defense system for the United States, including controversial space-based interceptors.

The Pentagon must submit within 60 days a proposed architecture for the system, including plans to accelerate the Missile Defense Agency’s ongoing Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor program and develop a “custody layer” within the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture — a planned constellation of military satellites currently being acquired by the U.S. Space Force’s Space Development Agency. 

The executive order also emphasizes securing the defense industrial base, requiring “next-generation security features” for the supply chain as the U.S. races to build advanced interceptors and tracking systems.

The “Iron Dome for America” order, which invokes Israel’s successful rocket defense system, directs the Pentagon to accelerate development of defenses against hypersonic weapons and other advanced aerial threats that Trump’s order describes as “the most catastrophic threat facing the United States.”

While drawing inspiration from Israel’s Iron Dome system, the U.S. initiative would need to be dramatically different in scale and capability to defend the continent-spanning American territory against sophisticated intercontinental ballistic missiles, rather than the short-range rockets that threaten Israel.

The U.S. has collaborated with Israel on missile defense technology since the 1980s, including support for the Iron Dome system, which has intercepted thousands of incoming rockets since its 2011 deployment. Unlike Israel’s system, which defends a territory roughly the size of New Jersey, a U.S. continental defense system would need to protect an area nearly 500 times larger against more sophisticated threats such as Chinese hypersonic glide vehicles.

Unlike traditional ground- or sea-based systems, the envisioned architecture leans on space-based solutions, which have long been controversial.

The order’s most contentious element directs the Department of Defense to pursue space-based interceptors — weapons positioned in orbit to destroy incoming missiles. While proponents argue these could provide global coverage and early intercept capabilities, critics warn they could trigger an arms race and undermine existing treaties. 

January 30, 2025 Posted by | USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

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