nuclear-news

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

Nuclear news this week – not industry handouts

Some bits of good news. 

Girl Goals: What Has Changed for Girls?Adolescent girls’ rights over 30 Years 

Fighting malnutrition in Burundi: Mothers of Light are rays of hope . 

A study found we underestimate how kind the world really is

TOP STORIES. Once seen as a symbolic protest, the nuclear ban treaty is growing teeth. Nuclear war threat: why Africa’s pushing for a complete ban. 

Nuclear Threat Beneath The Seas. 

Walt Zlotow – Why do so many leaders remain stupid about Ukraine war?  

SMRs most expensive of all electricity technologies per kW generation. 

PLANT VOGTLE The True Cost of Nuclear Power in the United States –Extract at ​
https://nuclear-news.net/2025/04/04/plant-vogtle-the-true-cost-of-nuclear-power-in-the-united-states/

Climate. Global warming is ‘exposing’ new coastlines and islands as Arctic glaciers shrink . Climate crisis on track to destroy capitalism, warns top insurer. Average person will be 40% poorer if world warms by 4C, new research shows.

AUSTRALIA. Trump tariffs spark questions over US alliance. This ain’t no April fools: Nuclear support melts down in proposed nuclear communities. More Australian nuclear news at https://antinuclear.net/2025/04/01/australian-nuclear-news-april-1st-7th/

NUCLEAR ITEMS.

ATROCITIES. International pressure forces Israel to change account of Gaza medics’ killing. What really happened in Bucha? The questions Western media won’t ask.

ECONOMICS.

EDUCATION. Hinkley C nuclear power station site teaches A Level students about “clean” energy !!
ENVIRONMENT. ‘They’re everywhere’: workers warn of rat infestation at Somerset nuclear plant.
EVENTS. Local Communities Say NO to Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL Expansion); Public Comments Due on Thursday, April 10th.
“Getting people to do what they can from where they are”: NFLAs support Democracy Day inspiring peace activists to make Councils anti-nuke allies-14-26 April – Lakenheath Peace Camp https://nuclearactive.org/
HISTORY. ‘Bringing calm and hope’: President Carter’s role at Three Mile Island
LEGAL. Deloitte seeks to avoid liability over US nuclear fiasco – ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2025/04/06/2-b1-deloitte-seeks-to-avoid-liability-over-us-nuclear-fiasco/   Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) rejects intervenors’ Palisades “zombie” nuke reactor restart petition & hearing request.
MEDIA. Canada supplied uranium for atomic bombs in WWII — 80 years later, the cleanup continues – film Atomic Reaction.

OPPOSITION to NUCLEAR . The great trek for justice.

Resistance to nuke dump grows in South Copeland.

POLITICS. 

POLITICS INTERNATIONAL and DIPLOMACY. Iran rejects ‘meaningless’ direct talks with US. With US bombers at the ready, can Trump cut a deal with Iran and avoid a war? Trump’s bombing threat over Iran nuclear programme prompts backlash. Military confrontation ‘almost inevitable‘ if Iran nuclear talks fail: French FM. Iran rejects direct talks with the US over its nuclear programme. Trump Threatens Iran With ‘Bombing’ If Nuclear Deal Is Not Reached. 

EUROPE’S DESPERATE GAMBIT. If the Europeans are serious about peace, they should invite Zelensky to fewer meetings. TRUMP’S PURSUIT OF A UKRAINIAN PEACE: Early Results and Future Prospects. 

Why Ontario won’t consider the nuclear option in its fight over Trump’s tariffs. 

China or America-Who is the warmonger? 

The West has big plans for nuclear power: Will geopolitics play ball

SAFETY.  Unsafe for Russia to restart Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, says Ukraine energy chief.

Pearl Harbor update brings nuclear risk. 

Nuclear site given more time to fix safety breach.

SECRETS and LIES. 

SPACE. EXPLORATION, WEAPONS. Swarms of satellites are harming astronomy. Here’s how researchers are fighting back.

TECHNOLOGY. Bavarian SMRs & Hydrogen Vans: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
URANIUM. Uranium stocks dumped as market ‘paralysis’ intensifies.
WASTES Inside the bizarre race to secure Earth’s nuclear tombs.  Cumbria could be only option for nuclear disposal.  Millom nuclear waste plans ‘currently detrimental’ to locals-ALSO AT  https://nuclear-news.net/2025/04/06/2-b1-millom-nuclear-waste-plans-currently-detrimental-to-locals/  
Recycling Nuclear Waste: A Win-Win or a Dangerous Gamble? 
Plutonium The true story of the demon core – https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9FEFGlBZBwg
WAR and CONFLICT. It’s Official: Ukraine Conflict is British ‘Proxy War‘. Germany deploys troops to Russia’s doorstep for first time since the Nazis. 
Hegseth Orders Pentagon To Focus on Preparing for War With China Over Taiwan. Hegseth Circulated Secret Pentagon Memo On Preparing For War With China.
WEAPONS and WEAPONS SALES. The future of Europe won’t be shaped by mushroom clouds – why nuclear weapons don’t provide security – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4Cx5O1yfoo 
Britain is aiding Israel’s nuclear force. UK nuclear deterrent: the mutual defense agreement is at risk in a Trumpian age.

April 8, 2025 Posted by | Weekly Newsletter | Leave a comment

Iran rejects ‘meaningless’ direct talks with US

As war of words over nuclear weapons deal escalates, FM Araghchi says he wants talks on ‘equal footing’.

6 Apr 2025, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/4/6/iran-foreign-minister-rejects-direct-talks-with-us

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has described the prospect of direct negotiations on its nuclear programme with the United States as “meaningless” amid mounting tensions between the two countries.

Araghchi’s remarks came in a statement on Sunday, after Trump said last month in a letter sent to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that he hoped there would be a negotiation between their countries aimed at preventing Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Trump upped the ante last week, saying: “If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing.”

Araghchi questioned Washington’s sincerity in calling for negotiations, saying on Sunday, “If you want negotiations, then what is the point of threatening?”

Tehran, which maintains that it is not seeking a nuclear weapon, has so far rejected Washington’s overtures, but has said it is open to indirect diplomacy – a stance repeated by Araghchi in Sunday’s statement.

Araghchi said Iran wanted to negotiate on an “equal footing” with the US, describing it as “a party that constantly threatens to resort to force in violation of the UN Charter and that expresses contradictory positions from its various officials”.

In 2018, during his first term as president, Trump nixed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a deal between Iran and the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council that gave Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme.

Iran has since rolled back on its commitments under the agreement, amassing enough fissile material for multiple bombs, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which carries out inspections of Iranian nuclear sites.

Responding to Trump’s threat of war, Hossein Salami, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said on Saturday that the country was “ready” for war.

“We are not worried about war at all. We will not be the initiators of war, but we are ready for any war,” the official IRNA news agency quoted Salami as saying.

But Tehran’s position in the region appears to have weakened amid the ongoing war in Gaza and beyond, with Israel’s decimation of Hezbollah’s leadership in Lebanon, and the toppling of another key partner, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, last year.

Iran says its nuclear activities are solely for civilian purposes. Israel, the top US ally in the region, is widely believed to have an undeclared nuclear arsenal.

April 8, 2025 Posted by | Iran, politics international | Leave a comment

Youth Leading the Charge for a Nuclear-Free Future

Monday, March 3, 2025, United Nations Headquarters – Meetup with International Youth Advocating for a World Without Nuclear Weapons.

The 3rd Meeting of States Parties (MSP) to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) saw the participation of numerous young people from around the world who are passionate about creating a world without nuclear weapons.

Thanks to the initiative of SPARK youth, an opportunity for a meetup and exchange with young people from anti-nuclear peace organizations in the United States and Japan was made possible.

A total of 20 youth from various organizations, including SPARK, Peace Action New York State, Kakuwaka Hiroshima, Gensuikyo (Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs), and Gensuikin (Japan Congress Against A and H-Bombs), participated in the meeting. Jin-tae Shim, a first-generation atomic bomb victim from Korea, and Jung-Soon Han, a second-generation victim, were also present to support and encourage the youth.

………………………..Following the introductions, the group discussed a variety of topics, including their interest in peace issues, their countries’ nuclear policies, and what sparked their interest in nuclear disarmament. Many intriguing ideas were exchanged…………………….. https://abombtribunal.campaignus.me/34/?q=YToxOntzOjEyOiJrZXl3b3JkX3R5cGUiO3M6MzoiYWxsIjt9&bmode=view&idx=159477468&t=board

April 8, 2025 Posted by | weapons and war | Leave a comment

ESA’s new documentary paints worrying picture of Earth’s orbital junk problem

By Monisha Ravisetti ,  April 3, 2025, https://www.space.com/the-universe/earth/esas-new-documentary-paints-worrying-picture-of-earths-orbital-junk-problem

There are a lot of satellites, and a lot of trash, around our planet — and the quantities are only going to get higher.

A new documentary short released by the European Space Agency presents an ominous statement within its first 20 seconds: “Around 70% of the 20,000 satellites ever launched remain in space today, orbiting alongside hundreds of millions of fragments left behind by collisions, explosions and intentional destruction.”

The approximately eight-minute-long film “Space Debris: Is it a Crisis?” attempts to answer its conjecture with supportive statistics and orbital projections.

For instance, it discusses how the rise of satellite constellations (think, SpaceX Starlink internet satellites) is bound to further increase the amount of stuff that orbits our planet — yet simultaneously, the amount of space junk will likely go up, too, due to shards of rockets tearing off during launch and out-of-commission spacecraft that can’t be returned to the ground in a timely manner.

Considering how quickly things in Earth orbit tend to zip around, a fragment of a spacecraft crashing into a satellite could greatly hinder that satellite; two satellites colliding could be catastrophic for both. Sometimes, debris even falls uncontrolled back to our planet.

The film also mentions that the kind of Earth orbit matters when discussing whether we’re in a space junk “crisis” — though unfortunately, orbits at risk appear to be those with satellites that help with communication and navigation, as well as our fight against another primarily human-driven crisis: global warming.

Still, the film emphasizes that solutions ought to be thought of carefully: “True sustainability is complex, and rushed solutions risk creating the problem of burden-shifting.”

You can watch the film on ESA’s website, linked just here.

April 8, 2025 Posted by | space travel | Leave a comment

‘They’re everywhere’: workers warn of rat infestation at Somerset nuclear plant

Unions urge energy giant EDF to take action as concerns mount over health of construction staff.

Guardian, Jillian Ambrose, Sun 6 Apr 2025

Workers building the troubled Hinkley Point C nuclear reactor in Somerset have raised concerns that the construction site is overrun by rats.

The Unite and GMB trade unions are understood to have warned the developer, the French energy giant EDF, that urgent action is needed because the rodents are “everywhere”.

The growing vermin population has prompted fears over the health of the workforce building Britain’s first new nuclear power plant in a generation, which is running years late and billions of pounds over budget. A source on the site told the Observer: “They’re all over. You see them just sat there, looking at you. It is worse near the canteens, where I guess it started. But they are everywhere now.”

A second source confirmed that the trade unions had broached the issue with EDF, describing the number of rats on the site as “quite grim”.

“The more men working on the site, the more rubbish on the site – and the canteens are not clean either. It has just become worse over time,” the source added………………………………………………………….https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/06/theyre-everywhere-workers-warn-of-rat-infestation-at-somerset-nuclear-plant

April 8, 2025 Posted by | environment, UK | Leave a comment

Raising Funds to Stop Lake District Coast Sub-Sea Nuclear Dump

 Radiation Free Lakeland has launched a crowdfund appeal to raise enough
funds to send out a leaflet direct to all 250,000 households explaining the
importance of lobbying Cumberland Council to carry out a full debate and
vote before going any further down the road to delivery of a “geological
disposal facility” (nuclear dump) for hot nuclear wastes. The bare
minimum we would need is £1,800 and with your help we could just do this.
We could stop the nuclear juggernaut in its tracks and protect the Lake
District coast from becoming the world’s biggest, leakiest nuclear
sacrifice zone.

 Radiation Free Lakeland 6th April 2025
https://mariannewildart.wordpress.com/2025/04/06/raising-funds-to-stop-lake-district-coast-sub-sea-nuclear-dump/

April 8, 2025 Posted by | opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment